


Of Tattered Wings And Broken Promises

by SeunnieLove



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angel/Human Relationships, Angels, Fantasy, Light Angst, M/M, additional tags and relationships will be added soon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 34,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28064652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeunnieLove/pseuds/SeunnieLove
Summary: **UPDATES EVERY 5-7 DAYSQuestion is:What will you do when a stubbornly sexy, and forever grouchy angel, and his weird, cross-dressing accomplice literally crashes into your life?**NOTE: I needed to take a break from writing something as heavy as DAF. So here you go. LMAO
Relationships: Im Jaebum | JB/Jackson Wang
Comments: 27
Kudos: 460





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!

**CHAPTER I**

Stupid fucking rain.

What's the point of it anyway? I mean, sure, it makes the grass grow and yadda yadda yadda, but can't we just invent something to take care of that? We're supposed to be the most intelligent species alive, remember? If we can have musical condoms, surely we can invent something to replace water. Right? Right.

Why do I hate the rain, you ask? For starters, it's wet. Wet and me don't mix well. Plus…my hair.

Ah, my hair.

My gloriously beautiful locks! I'm having a love affair with my own hair. How could I not? It's the coolest colour, I dyed it pink this time, but it turns really really ugly when wet. Damn rain. So anyway, it's this fricken' gorgeous rich colour and pretty long. Not that past shoulder kind of long, but long enough to be pinned or braided at times. It drives my girlfriend Lia nuts, the way I fawn over it.

But whenever rain decides to pay a visit, _oh boy_. My hair complains quite loudly. It frizzes, it mats and it turns into pure _string_. For this reason I hate water. Fortunately, it hates me too. It's a mutual thing. I'm happy to say we've both accepted this.

But it still likes to piss me off every now and then. Like right now.

I whimper, hovering at the doorway of Hanto Art Gallery, the town's best (only) gallery. I wonder if I can crash the night here, in the back room maybe.

"Jackson”

Susan is glaring at me with her horrible little green eyes. She's a vastly overweight woman with a heap of stringy brown hair, hairy armpits and one single eyebrow instead of two separate ones. She also hates my guts and would love nothing more than to beat me to death with her little green clipboard. The only reason she hired me was because my uncle begged her to. My uncle. Who she happens to be dating. Ew. There's some scary mental images for ya.

"Go”

"But it's wet!" I whine, giving her my best puppy dog expression. This, with my crater-size brown eyes, isn't too hard.

"I'll catch a cold and _die_!"

Note for future reference: puppy eyes don't work on Dragon Lady. Damn. Her sausage fingers tighten on the clipboard edges, her eyes narrow. Ooh, she wants to kill me.

" _Jack_ son,” she repeats warningly.

"Go. Now."

I hate her. Evil sadistic bitch! Bah!

I peer out through the wall of rain. Of course, my car is parked at the other end. _Right_ at the other end. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But how was _I_ to know it would rain? The sky looked perfectly blue and innocent this morning. Evil, conniving rain.

Taking a deep breath, I clutch my tatty grey messenger bag to my side, throw my free arm over my precious hair and run. Splashing through the rain, water ruining my brand new jeans, squealing like a little girl.

In a very manly way, of course.

And why is it that when it rains, I suddenly have the agility of a 3 year old on roller-skates? I drop my car keys twice. It takes me another five seconds just to open the damn door. Once it's open, I throw myself in, dumping my bag on the passenger seat. I don't put a towel down first, even though I know Lia will kill me for it. Sometimes she acts like it's _her_ car, not mine. It was my 20th birthday present from my mother, a cute little black Hyundai Getz. She bought it simply because she liked the ads for it. She's an odd one, my mum. One day I'll buy another car. Something bigger shinier, with no roof. When I plant the money tree in my backyard. Just let me get the backyard first. I have a balcony, does that count?

It's nearly seven o'clock and it's Thursday, so traffic is awful. Stupid bloody shoppers everywhere. What is it about Thursdays anyway? Luckily I don't live too far away from the gallery. I live in apartment 11 of a pretty decent block called Hanto Court. Cute, huh? All these names with ‘Hanto’ in them.

I don't even bother checking the underground car-park. I know it'll be packed. Stupid rain. It's out to get me. So I park outside and fling the door open. I'm already soaked to the bloody bone, so getting wet doesn't bother me so much anymore. I lock the door and dammit, I'm freezing. I want to get inside and _crash_.

And that's when I notice some serious movement from the corner of my eyes. I turn, just in time to see something crash into the road. From the sky. Oh my fricken' god. Like what the hell just falls out of the _sky?!_ A bird?

That's one bloody big bird.

I'm about to rush over there when it moves. Sorry, _one_ of them moves. Gets up on its hands and knees, wobbles unsteadily and groans.

Birds do not groan. People groan. Shit.

I rush over.

"Oh my god! Are you alright?! Where the hell did you come from?!"

There are two of them, the one on their hands and knees and another slumped in an unceremonious heap.

"Uh…yeah. I think so,” the one on their hands and knees groans.

I grabbed her arm and helped her up. Stared at her. She's dressed as a maid, right down to the frilly apron, fishnet stockings and the cute, short black dress. A frilly white headband pokes out from her short dark hair.

“Jaebeom!”

She kneels down beside the other guy.

"Is he alright,” I asked, starting to panic.

Ah, crap, two people drop out of the sky, what am I meant to do?! Dammit, why me?! I'm no good in emergencies!

“Jaebeom?!”

She turns him over onto his back. He does not look good. He's wearing one of those transparent mesh shirts and through it I can see the huge purple bruise covering his left side. His black hair is plastered to his pale forehead; he's having serious trouble breathing. I'm not a doctor, but his right arm is definitely broken. It's bent at an odd angle and god…what the hell happened?

"Shit!" I curse.

What the hell do I do?! Why me?! Why couldn't some other poor bastard have spotted them?! The maid gets a little frantic.

“Jaebeom! Answer me you jerk!"

She pauses and suddenly slaps the poor guy straight across the face!

"Hey!" I cry, grabbing her gloved hand.

"He's hurt, for fuck's sakes! Where the hell did you come from?!"

She raises her hand, points up at the sky.

"Obviously,” in a scornful voice, as though I asked a totally stupid question.

So we're here in the middle of the street in the pouring rain, soaking wet. What the fuck am I meant to do?!

'Call an ambulance!' My ever-helpful brain yells. And that's a great idea, except I've left my bloody phone in the apartment. _Shit_. I'm panicking. I need to calm down. Focus and breathe. I take a couple of slow deep breaths and turn back to the maid, watching Jaebeom anxiously.

"Come on, I'll take him to the hospital”

The maid claps her hands joyfully, as if this is just one fun little joyride. I somehow manage to pick Jaebeom up, trying not to disturb his arm. He trembles against me violently, his eyes screwed shut.

"D-Don't fucking t-t-touch me,” he gasps, jerking a bit.

I ignore it and prop him against the car whilst I fumble for my keys. His head lolls onto my shoulder and I can see a small thin tattoo along his neck. I think it's a barcode but who gives a shit about that right now? I have to get him to a _hospital_.

I open the passenger door and lay him on the seat as carefully as possible, right on top of my bag but that doesn't matter right now. His breathing is shallow and ragged, gasping and wheezing. He coughs, jerks, blood dribbles out the side of his mouth.

I rush into the driver's side and the maid's already in the back seat, gazing up at the roof, her hands folded neatly in her lap. I start the car and take off, the windscreen wipers going crazy. Why me?! Why today?! Why?!

Stupid fucking rain.

**If you want a reference for how long Seunie's hair is (or what style I'm referring to), please refer to this one:


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!

**CHAPTER II**

I hate hospitals.

I mean, everyone hates hospitals, but I hate them even more. The _smell_ , the look, the feel, just everything about them creeps me out. Plus there are all those sickly people wandering about in those stupid gowns that really need more buttons at the back. I've had enough of hospitals to last me a lifetime, methinks.

Anyway, I sped to the hospital (getting caught at three red lights along the way) at top speed and hauled Jaebeom (unconscious and barely breathing) into the emergency area. Doctors (or at least people in white coats) instantly leapt at us, shoving him on one of those bed things and wheeled him off, yelling things I didn't understand. Stupid doctor talk.

And so now I'm sitting in a hall, watching people rush past, anxiety building inside me until I'm sure I'm going to explode.

The maid's sitting beside me with a magazine she's pulled from somewhere, engrossed in an article about plastic surgery. She's swinging her legs, nearly kicking people several times, seemingly nonchalant about the fact that her friend is half-dead. Alright, probably most-dead.

Maids, are, for some reason, sex on legs. How can any sane guy resist them? The ridiculously short dress, the little aprons, the stockings, the cute frilly headbands, the sexy-as-all-hell collar, the gloves, everything. Please excuse me while I drool all over myself. Okay, she's got no chest whatsoever but I can deal with that. Hot.

"So, ahh, where did you two come from? I mean you just kinda…fell,” I say lamely, trying to strike up a conversation so I don't go out of my mind.

Stupid hospital.

"The sky,” she says cheerfully, her legs swinging about. As if just dropping out of the sky is perfectly normal.

"I uh…how?"

"We fell. Sky can be shifty sometimes"

I stare at her. What the fuck? Great. Just great. I've rescued a raving loon. Just my luck.

Suddenly her brown eyes narrow and she glares at me from the corner of her eyes.

"Are you checking me out? Coz if you are,” she rolls the magazine up and I'm pretty sure that under the cute gloves, her knuckles are turning white.

No, I'm actually wondering if I should check you into the loony bin. Duh. Can't you tell the difference? Dumb _ass_.

Before I can reply with any cool, smartarse comeback (and probably be beaten up for it) a door slams and holy shit, it's Jaebeom standing in front of us!

It takes me twenty billion blinks to confirm that no, I'm not seeing things and yes, that really is the same guy who I dragged in here. And he looks… fine. Perfectly, perfectly fine. As if he didn't come hurtling out of the sky and crash onto the road. Once again: what the fuck?! I gape at him.

“Jaebeom!” The maid squeals, practically throwing herself at him. She clings to his neck as if her life depends on it.

"You're okay!"

Yes. Okay. When he shouldn't be! By all rights he should be half-dead! His arm isn't even broken anymore; it's perfectly straight and healthy looking. And there's no sign of that bruise on his chest either. What the fucking hell is going on?!

I still gape. He stares at me suspiciously, his hand on the maid's waist.

"Oh!"

She lets go of him and points at me.

"This is the guy that brought us here! His name is, uh…what _is_ your name?"

"Jackson,” I say, somewhere in stunned disbelief.

The maid grins.

"Right! His name is Jackson. Hi, I'm Youngjae and this is Jaebeom!”

Jaebeom hasn't taken his narrowed eyes off me. He looks like he wants to tear me apart.

"Let's go,” he says gruffly, pulling the maid, I mean Youngjae, away.

I blink and snap back into reality.

"Whoa, no you don't!"

I grab his shirt sleeve, yanking him to a halt. Heh, admire my strength, people. He glares at me, but makes no move to do the whole tearing-apart thing.

"What the _hell_ is going on here?! Last time I checked, mister, you could barely talk, let alone walk! How the hell are you just okay now?! Why aren't the doctors chasing after you? What the, where the fuck did you even come from?! How the fuck did you fall out of the sky?! From _what_?!"

Jaebeom scowls and shoots an icy glare at Youngjae, who smiles sheepishly.

"What did Youngjae tell you? Never mind. Just ignore everything he says. He's crazy”

"He?"

I repeat, dumbfounded. I glance at Youngjae. It hits me.

"You're a _boy_?!"

"Yeah, so?"

"But you're wearing a _dress_!" I splutter, pointing at said clothing.

She, I mean _he_ , narrows his eyes again, his grip on the magazine tightening.

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Do I have a problem with guys running around in maid outfits? Hell yes, kind of! But that magazine looks pretty hurtyful, and he looks more than ready to inflict serious damage so…

"No,” I answer quickly.

"Not at all”

"Good”

"I told you," Jaebeom says in a dismal voice, "he's insane. And we must go. Thank you, Jackson, for…whatever"

"But—“

I start to protest but…they're just gone. The space where they were standing is totally empty and undisturbed, as if they were never even there. But of course they were there, I _saw_ them, _spoke_ to them, so where the fuck did they go?!

God…I knew I should've stayed at the gallery.

It's stopped raining. Typical. In the car, the seats have giant wet spots on them. My bag is soaked through; everything inside it is dripping wet. Not that there's much in it. A few random sketches and paintings of mine. Yes that's right, I'm an artist, go me. Well, an artist in my own little mind anyway. As much as I've begged and pleaded, Susan refuses to show anything of mine in the gallery. She won't even hang them up in the toilet. Rejection's a bitch.

My hair is a total wreck; it's matted and wiry and going to be hell to sort out. Stupid fucking rain!

When I get home Lia is there, cooking something up in the wok. Unlike me, Lia is actually capable of making safe, edible food.

"Hey babe,” she greets, "how was your day?"

I'm so tempted to tell her about my crazy (and slightly impossible) adventure at the hospital but somehow I doubt she'd believe me. So I just grunt and kick off my shoes. She gives whatever it is a stir.

"That bad, huh? I'm making stir fry"

Her nice blonde hair is up in a ponytail, completely dry and silky as always.

Unlike my poor, poor locks. They'll never forgive me for today.

I pulled at one stringy lock and yank it apart.

"Okay"

She glances at me properly, balancing a bit of carrot on her wooden spoon.

"You're wet"

"It's raining. At least it was,” I say bitterly, trying to separate the hopelessly tangled hair.

Lia makes a face, as though she never even noticed the rain. Probably didn't.

"Bummer. I totally missed it"

"Yeah," I agree darkly (stupid fucking rain).

“Bummer. I'm gonna take a shower."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!

**CHAPTER III**

I hate waking up. I especially hate waking up knowing I have to work.

Sadly, that's what has to happen.

I wake up slowly, unfurling in my warm bed to discover it is seven-fifty. I'm due at work at eight-thirty. I can hear a noise coming from the kitchen, which means Lia’s up and at 'em. Lia has no reason to be up and at 'em; she's just crazy.

I drag my weary self to the kitchen where, lo and behold, she's making breakfast.

"Good morning,” she says in a bright 'n' happy voice with a bright 'n' happy smile. Stupid early birds. I grunt a hello and flop down at the table.

"Do you want some toast?"

Without waiting for an answer she pops a few bits of bread into The Toaster. Two weeks ago when we hit the six month mark she decided we were ‘getting serious’ and bought a toaster to celebrate. Yay.

"Eh whatever,” I hold my head in my hands and yawn myself crazy.

My hair's a mess. It always is in the mornings. Even more so after it's been wet. My poor, beautiful locks. I pout.

Which brings me hurtling back to yesterday. Memories flood back and ugh…I can't believe that all happened. I don't want to think about it. Actually I do want to think about it, I want to know everything about it. I've always been a curious person and the thought of people falling out of the sky kind of intrigues me.

"Jack,” Lia taps my shoulder to get my attention.

"I asked if you wanted juice"

"Oh. Sorry,” time to come back to earth.

Juice. Mm. Juice is good.

"Yeah, thanks"

I tap the steering wheel impatiently. Bloody lights. Why me, why do they hate me so? I'm sure there's a god in charge of controlling traffic lights and I'm sure he hates my guts. Bah! The song changes, it is Britney Spears. God help me. I waste no time in changing _that_. Bored, frustrated, annoyed as hell, sweaty—not a good combination. Oh, and late for work. I glance out my window.

And freeze at the two ever-so-familiar persons lingering at the crossing.

It's _them_. Without a doubt.

Proving that yes, yesterday did exist after all. Christ. What were their names again? Ah, right, Jaebeom and Youngjae. How could I forget? I stare, or more correctly gape, at them. Jaebeom looks fine, healthy, normal and dry. Youngjae is, but of course, in the ridiculous maid outfit. I stare so hard that I didn’t even notice the lights change. Suddenly the car behind me honks and everything snaps back together. I'm on a road; I need to get out of it. Duh. I need to talk to those two…weirdos. I drive off and turn the corner, glancing over my shoulder to see that they're crossing the road. I find the closest parking spot and practically fall out of the car. Ooh, go Mr. Agile. A quick dash around the corner and they're already over the other side, walking down the street and attracting a lot of strange stares. I run after them, across the road without even looking. I'm not sure why the hell I'm pursuing this but I can't help myself. By some miracle I make it across the road in one piece _and_ without causing a crash. Go me!

By the time I actually reach them, I'm exhausted. Curse my lack of athleticness. I skid to a stop and double over, panting and gasping like a stupid looking fish. They both turn, staring at me like I'm completely out of my mind. Probably am. Neither seems to recognize me until…

"Hey it's you! Hospital boy!" Youngjae says with a little squeal, bouncing up and down a bit.

I straighten up, still fighting to get lots of nice air into my poor deprived lungs.

"Um, yeah"

Jaebeom frowns, looking pretty darn displeased.

"It's you"

No, you think?

"Me,” I confirm, as if there's any need.

I don't feel too comfortable under his resentful glaring eyes.

"I uh, I just saw you and…" wanted to prove I'm not going nuts?

Oops, too late. Oh screw the formalities.

"Actually, I'm just curious about yesterday"

Something flashes across Jaebeom’s face—suspicion? Worry? Whatever it is, it's gone before I can label it.

"What about it,” he asks carefully and yes, suspiciously.

I glance around. No one's taking any notice of us anymore.

"It's just um, unusual"

They glance at each other. Back at me. Jaebeom definitely looks wary now.

"How so,” he asks slowly as if he really doesn't have a clue. I'm lost for words for a moment.

"Well, for starters, the whole sky issue and then the hospital thing,” I trail off.

I clear my throat.

"People don't usually…heal that fast. It's not even possible"

Oh my god, what if they're aliens? Do I even believe in aliens?

"It isn’t,” Youngjae asks in surprise.

I'm, well, flabbergasted.

"No!" I wave my arms a bit, getting a little hysterical.

"It just doesn't happen! So I wanna know what the hell happened, how it happened, and who the hell you are because it's driving me _nuts_!"

They just stare at me. I glare back in all my stubborn glory. They aren't gonna weasel their way out of it this time. I need answers. Finally, Youngjae sighs.

"Fine, we'll tell you"

Jaebeom glances at him sharply but he's already talking again.

"We kill people and—“

Jaebeom clamps his hand over Youngjae’s mouth quickly, silencing him.

"Shut up,” he hisses, darting a reproachful look at me.

I gaze. Gaze stupidly. Gaze blankly. Gaze in a nice disbelieving way.

"What,” I ask finally, somehow not surprised that it was something insane and stupid like that.

Jaebeom narrows his eyes.

"Nothing. I told you; he's insane"

"Well, obviously, but…what?"

Youngjae pushes his hand off.

"No, I—“

Jaebeom’s hand claps over his mouth again.

"Shut up, idiot,” he scowls, his other hand wrapping around the back of his neck.

He looks at me, poor confused me, again. One of those dark unpleasant looks. I wonder if this guy even knows what a smile is.

"We have to go. We would appreciate it if you left us alone from now on"

Youngaje’s eyes are wide, he looks mighty annoyed as Jaebeom drags, ahem, _leads_ him off down the street. I watch after them, feeling twice as perplexed as yesterday. Not to mention uneasy. This whole…thing…is just too…crazy. I trudge back to my car, a weird feeling building in my gut. I really want to wake up again.

At work, Susan is as relentless as always. Nasty old bitch. No idea what my uncle sees in her. And I don't think I want to know either. I walk around, trying to appear interested but probably failing pitifully. At midday I want to go outside but Susan, being queen bitch, won't let me. Meaning I have to suffer. I manage to sneak into the storeroom, making up some lame excuse about wanting to clean it out. It needs a good clean, too.

I flicked the light switch and nearly screamed. There, sitting cross-legged on a few old boxes is _Youngjae_. Wearing his ridiculous dress and a bored expression.

"You,” I gasp, trying to recover from my little heart attack.

Geez! How the hell did he get in here anyway?

He grins, looking out of place in all this old junk.

"Hi!"

"How the hell did you get in here,” I rush around, checking the windows.

They're all locked.

His eyes twinkle mischievously.

"I have my ways,” he pauses.

"I thought you might like me to continue what I was saying this morning"

I kind of gape at him. I've been doing that a lot lately. He nods.

"Thought so. Okay! Take a seat. Just don't take it too far. Ha! I crack myself up"

I perch on the edge of a box beside him (hoping it doesn't collapse under all my weight) cautiously. He kind of half twists around to face me.

"As I was saying before I was _rudely_ interrupted, we kill people"

"What—“

"Don't interrupt,” he snaps, flicking his gloved hand at me.

He takes a deep breath.

"Okay, this is a little wacky, but you have to trust me on this"

"But you're wearing a dress,” I say weakly.

He growls, sounding a bit like a Chihuahua.

"We've been through this, I am a boy, I have a perfectly healthy penis under this dress, alright?"

Okay. Ew. Really didn't need to know that last part.

"Anyway, back to your questions…again, this is gonna sound weird but…we're angels"

Blank. Angels. Now I really have heard it all.

"Right,” I say. I mustn't sound too convinced because he jumps off the boxes and stands in front of me

"I'm serious! We are, me and Jaebeom, we're angels!”

"Of course,” I say dully.

This guy needs a straight jacket.

"Please, you have to believe me,” he pleads.

"Just, hear me out. See, there are all different types of angels in charge of all different types of things, okay? There are angels that make people fall in love, angels that make the weather change, angels in charge of wealth, happiness, _everything_ that happens in your world is controlled by us. Jaebeom and I are, how do I say it…we're kind of like…angels of deathiness or something. We don't really have an official title or anything. But basically, we make sure all the people who are supposed to die end up dead and in their proper place,” he pauses, licks his lips and continues.

"We're not the only deathy angel peoples; there are heaps more and we all have our own little areas to look after. See, the guys that were assigned to this fine city weren't doing a very good job so I and Jaebeom got sent in. That's when we crashed outta the sky last night”

I stare. I mean…angels? I've never really believed in them before.

"You do realize I don't believe you right,” I ask slowly.

"I have proof! Look,” he holds up his hands and, suddenly, a piece of paper materializes there between his fingers. I don't even blink. I'm getting used to all this weird stuff.

"Here, see,” he hands the paper to me and I look down at it.

It's brown, wrinkled and charred around the edges. But that's not what fascinates me. It's the names, in fancy shimmering gold lettering, scrolling down the page. And I mean scrolling. As in, actually moving. The names roll down slowly, one at a time. I can't do anything but watch.

"That's the List - it's a list of people that have to die,” Youngjae explains, taking it off me.

It vanishes from his hands into thin air.

"Everyone on that list gets a visit from us, and we make sure they…cross over safely”

"Safely?" I echo.

There are unsafe ways to die? He shrugs and his apron rustles.

"It's a complicated process. We can't just lead them off and say 'hey! You're in Heaven now!'"

"So there is a Heaven?"

"Duh. And there's a Hell. The List tells us which one they go to,” he cracks a smile.

"Having a hard time digesting that? It's unbelievable, I know, but the truth"

I clear my throat.

"So at the hospital…"

"Well we have like super-duper fast healing powers. Just one of the many perks of our job. So, yeah, we don't really need to visit a hospital. But it was a nice of you to take us there anyway. And none of the doctors remember it 'cause Jaebeom wiped their memories of it. He can do that. You're the only one who didn't get your mind tampered with"

"Why?"

What'd I do to deserve this?

He shrugs again, looking almost embarrassed.

"I kinda begged him not to”

Again, "why?"

He looks to the side.

"I dunno. I just thought it'd be nice, you know? To actually make a friend. I mean, who knows how long we'll be here for and I just thought it'd be cool if we actually knew someone we could hang with and stuff. Jaebeom’s not a very social person but…I just thought it'd be good,” he laughs.

“Jaebeom would _kill_ me if he knew I was here"

"How did you know I work here anyway,” I ask, slowly digesting all this.

I have no choice but to believe him. The proof is all here.

He grins.

"I know everything about everyone. Another perky perk. And I better go, before Jaebeom notices I'm gone,” he pauses hopefully.

"So…I'll see you around, right? Please?"

Uhh…

"I guess,” I agree weakly.

After all, what's wrong with befriending a couple of crazy angels?

"Great!"

He disappears into thin air. Right. Going to have to get used to that, I suppose.

" _Jack_!"

Susan barks from somewhere.

"Get out there!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! It's been uhh 4/5 days since I've published this, so time for an update! Hmm how have you been? I like this story because it's not as heavy as the other one I'm working on. If you can, drop me some insights, just anything to give me an idea of how you see this (story). That'd be a big help! Thanks a lot!

**CHAPTER IV**

Saturdays. The one day (apart from Sunday) I can sleep in till as long as I want. Lots of crazy people like to work on a Saturday (for some reason that totally puzzles me), but, thank god, Susan doesn't want to see any more of my face than she has to. Which is fine by me, because really, I don't want to see her ugly mug either.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Weekends.

I love whoever invented the weekend. Two uninterrupted days of pure lazy bliss! I'm pretty sure there's some serious flat-cleaning to be done, but I can ignore that. I don't mind a cobweb or two. Or fifty hundred. Yep, that's fine by me.

I roll over and throw my arm where Lia is supposed to be. Except my arm just hits the mattress and bounces a bit. Hmm. She must have left early.

Oh well. I'll just snuggle myself. I can deal with that.

I can hear stuff going on outside, cars zooming by and stupid birds twittering, but I'm too damn lazy to get up and close the window. I don't even know why it's open. I'm sure I closed it last night.

I reach up, yank my pillow out from under my head and press it over my ears. It kind of smells. The pillow, I mean. Which isn't too surprising, considering how much drool gets splattered on it every night. Hey, I never said I was a pretty sleeper.

I don't want to get up.

And the second I decide that I'm going to stay in bed all day, my stomach decides to announce its hunger with a big freakish gurgle. I whimper and try to ignore it. It gurgles again and I squirm a bit. Curse my need for food! Curse it bad!

I shove the pillow off and kind of stare at the ceiling for a moment, covering my yawn with my half-numb hand. I must've been laying on it during the night again. I push my hand past my nose and up to my forehead and, gingerly, into my hair. A big fat ugh. It feels like hell. Wiry, steel wool-ish hell. That rain didn't do any good at all. It's going to take a couple of washes to get it back to its usual, glorious state.

I sit up slowly, the sheets dropping down to my waist. My head spins for a second or two and I snort, rubbing my eyes. When I open them again my vision is nice and blurred.

I blink that away and stand. Sway a bit, take a step. Yeah, I know, I'm not a morning person. Waking up is a slow and painful process.

I stumble out of the bedroom, and head for the kitchen. _Food_.

Too bright!

I hate the sun sometimes.

My eyes screwed shut; I shuffle over to the window above the sink and yank the curtain shut. That'll teach the sun for daring to blind me with its evil...sunniness. The clock on the top of the fridge says it is 8:49. Which is far, far too early for any decent person. I'll just grab something to eat, take a piss and go back to bed. I hope Lia isn't expecting me to call or anything.

Oh well, she'll live.

I open the fridge and peer at the contents. Or lack of. It's not that I don't have food, it's just...well, it's not the healthiest diet. It mainly consists of takeaway and frozen stuff that can be zapped in the microwave. Half the time Lia brings her own food over.

Let's start with milk. Good, healthy milk.

I have a bit of trouble with the lid because I'm still half asleep (it's a good excuse!) but manage to wrench the evil little yellow thing off eventually. Yes, I'm a pathetic weakling. Deal with it. I turn around and FUCKING HELL! The milk bottle crashes to the ground and milk goes everywhere.

"Hi!" Youngjae waves in that annoyingly cheery way of his, grinning like there's no tomorrow.

He's just standing in front of the table a few feet in front of me, in that stupid French maid outfit.

" _You_ ,” I cry, outraged.

Outraged that he thinks he can just pop up whenever he wants and make me spill my milk. Milk that I can feel pooling around my poor bare feet. Ew, cold.

He tilts his head, a confused look coming over him.

"What's wrong Jackson hyung?”

"You!” I repeat with a wave of my powerful hands, a very nice habit of mine.

"Ever heard of a door?! You knock on it, and I open it! It's not very hard! You do not just pop up wherever you want! Door!"

"Sorry?"

He shrugs, but he's still grinning. I growl and grab the tea-towel draped over the bench, crouch down and make a pitiful attempt at mopping up the milk.

"Look what you've done now,” I grumble, wiping my feet with the now soaked tea-towel. I stand back up, and almost whack my head into the underside of Jaebeom's chin.

Okay, heart attack time!

"What is wrong with you two?!"

I gasp, jumping back and trying to calm down. I throw the tea-towel into the sink and march over to the door.

"See this?!"

I point at it, jabbing at the pretty wood.

"Door! Say it with me, d-o-o-r! Got it?!"

Jaebeom fixes me with a disgusted stare, like I'm some worthless slug. Youngjae looks almost worried.

"You're very fond of your door,” he says, glancing at Jaebeom with an 'is-he-for-real' look.

I march back to the tea-towel and begin wringing it in my hands, imaging that it's Youngjae's neck. Or Jaebeom's. I'm not fussy.

"Yes," I say bitterly.

“I’m having a love affair with my door. Which doesn't explain what the hell you're doing here”

Ah yes, I love those explanations. Youngjae scrunches up his nose, making him look like he's either constipated or deep in thought.

"Is that even possible? I mean, a door's pretty...how is that even possible?"

"Shut up Youngjae. He was being sarcastic,” Jaebeom folds his arms and kind of perches on the edge of the round table.

Yes, round. No harsh lines and sharp corners for me, no sirree. I turn around to face them properly after slinging the tea-towel over the tap to dry. It's going to stink later. Dried milk always stinks.

Jaebeom's watching me with the same unimpressed, somewhat critical expression. He's wearing a nice, normal dark green shirt and nice, normal dark pants. It's nice to know one of them isn't totally gender-confused. I narrow my eyes at him, not liking the way his eyeballs watch me.

"Do you have a problem or something?"

He makes an odd grunting noise and looks me up and down, his mouth turning into a sneer.

"You look disgusting."

O...kay. Yeah, _thanks_ arsehole!

"I just woke up!" I say defensively, patting my hair self-consciously.

"And anyway, you have no right to come barging in here and insulting me! I don't even know why you're here!"

Youngjae laughs nervously, putting his arm on Jaebeom's arm.

"Don't mind him Jackson hyung, he doesn't mean to be so rude. He's just a bit grumpy in the morning”

Jaebeom snorts and looks away. I fold my arms, feeling nice and awake now. You'd be amazed at what two strange angels randomly appearing in your kitchen can do. It's like caffeine, only really irritating and not as tasty.

"Now can you explain what you're doing here? Or better yet, go back home? I want to get back to sleep"

"Um, well," Youngjae flashes a hesitant smile, "we were kind of—“

"Don't get me involved in this,” Jaebeom deadpanned.

"This was all your idea"

Youngjae smoothes his dress.

"Uh, yeah. I was kind of wondering if you could do us, me, a favor!"

Oh. Favor. Why am I getting that nasty sinking feeling?

"Like what,” I ask slowly.

" _Well_ we don't know our way around very well and we, I, would really, really appreciate it if you could kind of give us a tour!"

I stare at them.

"A tour?"

"Yeah! Of the city,” he squeals, thrusting his arms into the air.

For about the zillionth time I wonder why he isn't in a straight jacket yet.

I jut my hip out, raising my eyebrows.

"And what? You just expect me to drive you around all friggin' day?"

Youngjae's face is blank and he stops his arm thrusting.

"Well...yeah. Pretty, pretty, pretty please,” his eyes grow huge and watery, and it takes me a second to realize he's trying the Puppy Eyes on me.

That rascal! Only I can do the Puppy Eyes dammit! He's not even good at it!

"Uh," I say nice and sarcastically.

“How about no? I'm not your...um...whatever those tour guidey people are called"

Jaebeom arches a single eyebrow effortlessly.

"Tour guides?"

I snap my fingers.

"Yeah, tour guides. I'm not your tour guide!"

Jaebeom sighs heavily, untangling an arm to drag his fingers through his black hair.

"And this is why I don't associate with humans. Fucking idiots, the whole lot of you"

I start to open my mouth to spit a clever reply that would KICK HIS ASS but before I can get the clever ass-kicking words out, Jaebeom sighs again and looks at me properly.

"Just do this one thing, alright? Just to shut the idiot up"

I close my mouth again and consider it. It's not like I have anything else to do...but that would mean I wouldn't be able to sleep. Ugh! Finally, I heave a heavingly heavy sigh.

"Fine. I guess I can show you around for a bit"

"YAY!"

Youngjae leaps at me and I don't have time to move, and he's clinging to my shirt.

"Thank you hyung!”

I push him away, embarrassed and annoyed.

"Yeah, whatever. Just let me get dressed first, okay?"

I walk to the door and suddenly wild images of returning to a trashed kitchen torture my poor brain. I quickly turn, giving them both a warning glare.

"Don't touch anything"

Jaebeom snorts, glancing around at the kitchen.

"Like I'd want to"

"Good boy"

I duck back to my bedroom. I grab some random clothes, fixing my bed a longing, mournful look.

"I'll come back to you soon, I promise,” I tell it lovingly, fiddling with my braid. I'll have to wash that later too.

* * *

"I love your car!”

Youngjae all but squeals, practically hugging the seat. He's in the back, gazing around in awe. I guess they don't have cars in angel-land.

I just sigh and start the car up, giving it a few seconds to warm up before we're off. Beside me, Jaebeom looks kind of squished and uncomfortable with being in the small space.

"I love these strappy things,” the crazy one cries, tugging on the seatbelt with big shiny eyes. I glance at Jaebeom as we're moving out of the car park.

"Did you actually pick him to be your...partner thing?"

He gives me a dirty, dirty look.

"Are you kidding? I only ended up with the idiot because no-one else wanted him"

I look at Youngjae through the mirror. "

I'm not surprised. Okay, um...where do you want to go?"

Jaebeom shrugs, picking at his seatbelt, bored.

"Don't know, don't care. I'm only here because there's nothing else to do and Youngjae dragged me into it"

Youngjae leans forward in the seat, grinning a grin that stretches from ear-to-ear.

"Show us the building where you work! You can start there!"

I shudder. Why the hell would I want to see that hellhole? I see it five days a week, that's more than enough for me. 

"No thanks. Okay, I guess we can start at Mount Regent"

Youngjae gets all perky.

"Okay! I like mountains!"

I look back at him, and again I can't help but wonder how I ended up in this mess.

"Yeah, alright, whatever, just sit back. I don't want a bloody fine"

The car falls silent and I drive along, watching the cars in front, watching the cars in back, all that boring driving stuff. Jaebeom stares out the window, contempt all over his face. He obviously wants to be doing this no more than I do. In the back, Youngjae oohs and aahs at everything and anything.

As my car drifts, my mind drifts. Back to the whole angel issue. I guess I've accepted it, but I can't say it's easy to believe. I mean, really, angels? I don't think I've ever really believed in angels. Ghosts maybe, but not really angels. And when I did think of angels, I always thought of the pretty sparkly halos and insanely clean robes and the cute little wing thing. Not a sullen grouchy-face and a fricken’ cross-dresser. I wonder what Lia would say about all this. Ooh, how fun that'd be. I'd love to see her reaction if I told her I'm spending the day driving a pair of killer angels around town. That mental image is enough to make me chuckle, and Jaebeom looks at me sharply.

"What?"

I shake my head, unable to shake the smile off.

"Nothing. Just thinking about what my girlfriend would say about you guys"

I guess he was expecting something more exciting. He goes back to his listless staring, and Youngjae leans forward again as we approach Mount Regent. It isn't that big, in fact I'm pretty sure it's more of a hill than a mountain. What makes a mountain a mountain anyway? What's the difference?

"There isn't really a difference,” Jaebeom says suddenly, not looking at me.

"A mountain usually has an identifiable summit, but there's no real universally accepted standard definition for the height of a mountain or a hill"

WHAT THE HELL?!

I whip around to stare at him and the car jerks to the side.

"What?! How the hell did you know what I was thinking?!"

"Jackson hyung, be careful,” Youngjae cries, shielding his face.

"Don't crash the pretty car!"

Crash, ha! I'm better than that. The car returns the road, nice and safe and still pretty.

Jaebeom rolls his eyes.

"Because, you moron, I can"

Oh, great. Just what I need. Someone prying into my private thoughts. Just bloody brilliant.

"Well in the future, don’t,” I snap, turning the first corner in the windy, windy road up the mountain.

"My mind is my own private sanctuary; keep your grubby whatever out of it!"

He sighs, his eyebrows drawn in a scowl.

"Like I want to see what's in that twisted thing that barely passes for your brain. But I can't help it if you keep thinking so damn loud"

"Well block it out,” I say huffily. He ignored it and Youngjae leans forward, all excited.

"Ooh, we're going up so high! I like it high!"

"Hey," I tell him a little harsher than I meant to.

“What'd I say about sitting back in the seat?"

Of course, my snappy tone just bounces straight off him. He sits back, still grinning happily and twisting around in the seat to look at all the trees. Yeah, trees. I guess he thinks they're pretty too.

I can't wait to get back home. Why did I even agree to this? What on earth made me say yes to Youngjae in that dusty, dusty room? I really am insane.

"We're here,” Youngjae crows, fidgeting around anxiously, probably desperate to get out into the fresh high-up air.

"Thank god,” Jaebeom mutters under his breath.

I feel the same way. I turn the car off and climb out, swinging the keys around my fingers. Thankfully, we're the only ones here. Not that I blame everyone else for staying away. There's nothing up here, just a dirty toilet block, a tiny car park and a couple of platform things. Nothing interesting. Nothing I haven't seen and nothing I want to see again. But Youngjae is fascinated. You'd think he'd never seen a mountain before. And it occurs to me that maybe he hasn't. Maybe he's never even been to earth before. Maybe this is like, their first time. Maiden voyage or whatever. First time in the real world. Something.

Youngjae walks ahead, a little bounce in his step. He disappears into the toilet, and I can hear him fiddling with the taps. I decide not to mention the major hygiene issue.

"Hey Jaebeom," I turn to where he's looking down the road we just drove up.

“Is this like your first time on earth? I mean, is it like your first time out of...wherever you came from?"

He moves around slowly, watching everything with his usual cold manner.

"I've been here before. It wasn't for very long though, and it was in the middle of nowhere. This is his first time,” he glances at the toilet block, and scowls at the excited squeals coming from it.

"Obviously”

I kind of snicker and I'm starting to feel a bit better. Maybe it's the fresh air or something. The sun doesn't seem as bad and deathly anymore.

"Ah, let him be. He's enjoying himself,” I pause once again struck by how odd it feels calling Youngjae a he, even though he is a he. Oh, master of making sense am I.

"Um...why does he wear a dress?"

Jaebeom shrugs, his shirt lifting up a bit and catching on the hem of his pants.

"Fucked if I know. Always been like that. I've tried to knock some sense into him, but after the millionth try I gave up"

I glance at him warily.

"You didn't...literally knock sense into him, right?"

It wouldn't surprise me.

"I love the smell of this air,” Youngjae says, and the wind is getting stronger.

A sudden gust crashes into us, whipping my pretty locks around until it turns into a messy bird’s nest. Great, I hate wind as well. Youngjae's dress is blown up and he pushes it back down frantically, his face turning bright red. Jaebeom's lips twist up into a kind of half-smirk, and Youngjae looks horrified.

"Shut up,” he barks, folding his arms huffily as the wind dies down.

"Didn't say a word,” Jaebeom says mysteriously, walking over to the edge of one of the platforms. I'm trying not to laugh at the look on Youngjae's face.

"Don't worry about it," I tell him good-naturedly.

”It happens to the best of us"

Which is bullshit, and he knows it.

He rolls his eyes and stomps after Jaebeom. He plops himself down on one of the two falling-apart benches, and takes off his headband to fix his hair. Jaebeom's standing right at the edge of the platform, dangerously close to falling off.

"Can you guys fly,” I ask curiously, imagining the 'normal' angel with the halo and wings and shit.

"Coz last I heard, angels could fly,” I get a quick mental image of Jaebeom flapping his arms like a bird and trying to take off. I have to bite my lip to stop myself laughing.

"Yes,” Jaebeom says, opening his eyes.

The wind's a bit stronger here, making my hair look like a total wreck. Well that's a relief! Being able to fly would be so cool. I think I'd love it. I'm a bit excited about the whole idea.

"Awesome! Can I see it?"

"No”

He turns around, his back to the sky, and starts walking back to the car.

"I'm bored. Let's go"

I sigh and Youngjae shrugs at me, following me to the car.

Damn. I would've liked to see them fly.

Suddenly Youngjae stops dead in his tracks, as does Jaebeom.

"What,” I ask worriedly, thinking some is seriously wrong.

"Aw damn,” Youngjae whines, holding his hands up.

In two non-shiny seconds, the familiar brown scrap of paper materializes in his gloved hands.

"Aw crap,” he moans, not looking too happy.

I stand behind him and peer down over his shoulder. Two names scroll down, dazzling in the sun. Jaebeom walks over and takes the list off Youngjae.

"Let's go,” he says gruffly.

The paper disappears, and Youngjae spins around to face me. Well that was a sudden end. I should feel glad that I can go home now and not have to be all...tour guidey.

"Right now,” I ask, not that I don't want them to go or anything. Youngjae nods, and pats my shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll come back and see you later!"

Oh, great.

"Thanks for bringing us here,” he says, before he completely vanishes.

"Yeah,” Jaebeom says uncomfortably. Maybe he's not used to thanking people. He disappears, leaving nothing behind but a bunch of nice, normal air.

Leaving me standing alone in the middle of the stupid car park. I exhale loudly, and trudge back to the car.

* * *

Ah, my beautiful, beautiful flat! My beautiful lonely bed, waiting patiently for me to crawl back into it. I throw the keys on the table and they slide off the edge, making a loud jingly noise when they hit the floor.

It's 10:30. I've only wasted a couple of hours. Good.

My hair is really suffering. First the rain and then the windy slaughtering of windiness. I pat it a bit and pause at the sink, wrinkling my nose. All I can smell is milk, and it's horrible. Ugh. I knew it'd stink.

I guess I should call Lia anyway. Just to let her know I'm awake or something. She might want to go out later tonight or something. I pick up the phone and dial her number. It rings twenty million times and eventually I get the answering machine thing.

"Hey Li it's me, just calling to say hi. Um...ring me back if you want?"

I hang up, feeling kind of stupid. Answering machines always make me feel stupid. I have no idea why. I think they hate me. They probably try to make me feel stupid on purpose.

"What to do, what to do,” I mumble, drifting back to my room.

I'm too awake now to go back to sleep. Damn you fresh air, damn your waking-up-powers-of-waking-up! I sit down on the bed, and wonder what Jaebeom and Youngjae are doing. It must be weird, killing people. I wonder how they do it. Obviously they don't actually kill the person, but they must do something. I shrug, and make a mental note to ask them later. If I see them later.

If I want to see them later.

Which...I guess I sorta do. Maybe I should be the one in the straightjacket.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! It's been uhh 4/5 days since I've published this, so time for an update! Hmm how have you been? I like this story because it's not as heavy as the other one I'm working on. If you can, drop me some insights, just anything to give me an idea of how you see this (story). That'd be a big help! Thanks a lot!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! It's been uhh 4/5 days since I've published this, so time for an update! Hmm how have you been? I like this story because it's not as heavy as the other one I'm working on. If you can, drop me some insights, just anything to give me an idea of how you see this (story). That'd be a big help! Thanks a lot!

**CHAPTER V  
**

"Kindly remind me why I'm doing this,” I grunt, my arm swinging wildly above my head.

I still can't reach the damn ceiling. I guess I'm not that tall after all.

"Because," Lia looks up at me,

"I can barely see your ceiling. I don't know how you can even live in this mess"

"Quite easily thank you,” I say snootily, rising up onto my tiptoes and waving the duster high above my head.

It just brushes the ceiling, and manages to attract some dust. Lia shakes her head and continues sweeping the floor. I concentrate on the dusting. I bite my lip and edge along the table a bit, trying to reach more. It's not my fault the ceiling is so high.

"Dammit,” I curse loudly.

I lean up higher, step out a bit more...and the stupid table topples over, sending me crashing into the floor.

" _Shit_ ,” I yell, horribly sharp pain stabbing through my back.

"Are you okay?!"

Lia kneels down beside my head, her face wrought with concern. Her hand is on my chest, and I lay there scowling, waiting for the pain to fade.

"Yeah. Fucking table"

She takes my hand and helps me stand up, holding onto my waist.

"Be more careful next time. You could've seriously hurt yourself"

I rub my sore back, glaring at the table now lying on its side.

"Or maybe I just need better furniture”

She rolls her eyes and picks up the broom, moving it from side-to-side along the floor.

"Or maybe you just need to be more careful"

I gasp, striking a dramatic pose.

"You're siding with the furniture? You defend it over me?! Don't I mean anything to you anymore?"

She smiles and steps into me, awkwardly wrapping her arms around my shoulders. I say awkwardly, because she's still holding the broom and it nearly hits my head.

"You fool. I'm serious. Be more careful, okay?"

She kisses the tip of my nose and falls back, returning to her sweeping. She does like to clean, that girl.

I push the table into its normal upright position and pick up my duster. It's all feathery and bright pink. Such a manly duster.

"Yeah, yeah. Life is full of risks! You have to be adventurous"

She glances at me slyly.

"Oh yeah? You obviously haven't seen what your little adventurous fall has done to your hair"

This time I do seriously gasp and drop the duster, my hands zooming straight to my hair. I pat it carefully, and wince. There's dust coating the back of my head, and I can feel little bits of something sticking out of my bangs. I whirl around and glare at the pile of dirt on the floor that Lia swept up. Right where I fell.

"I hate you! Stupid evil _crap_!"

I kick it and it goes flying all over the floor again. Lia throws her hands up and the broom hits the table.

"Yeah thanks a lot Jack! I just swept all that!"

I pout.

"I don't care. Stupid dirt, messing up my hair"

She doesn't look happy.

"Well if you actually cleaned once in a while, there wouldn't be so much dirt! Now I have to sweep the floors all over again! No wait, better yet, do it yourself!"

She throws the broom down and storms out the front door. I hear it slam, and I just kind of stand there in disbelief. I can't believe she's cracking up over such a tiny thing. I was only mucking around! Sometimes she takes things a little too seriously.

"Sorry?" I say, to nothing and no-one. I wait a few minutes, just to see if she comes back. She doesn't, and I pick up the broom with a sigh. All of a sudden, I can't wait to work tomorrow.

* * *

"You're late,” Susan hisses, her little green eyes shining with hatred and disgust and all those other lovely things.

She probably would've yelled it, but there are customers lingering around and she wouldn't want to make a bad impression.

I shrug off my jacket and my bag and throw them behind the front desk, despite her previous warnings not to do so.

"Yeah, I know, sorry. I was trying to call Lia. We had a fight"

God knows why I'm telling her that.

She snorts, and I fully expect snot to come flying out of her nose. But it doesn't, and I must say I'm glad for that.

"Does it look like I care?"

Susan is totally puzzled about Lia. She can't figure out how someone like Lia wound up with someone like me. And I must admit, I can't really figure it out either. So Susan is always waiting for what she calls the 'inevitable break-up'.

"Not really,” I say, and take off.

The gallery isn't the most popular place in the world, but as it's the only art gallery in town we do get quite a few people in here. Especially when an entire set of students from their little art class visit. Like right now.

They must be from the high school up the road, and there's about twenty of them. I recognize the teacher, a tall thin man with a huge beard. He comes here quite often, sometimes for hours on end. That guy really loves his art. For a split second I wonder if I could show him mine and see what he thinks. Not that it's brilliant or anything. Just some feedback would be nice, I guess. Lia isn't an artsy person. It all looks the same to her.

Working here isn't a very exciting job. Basically, on boring days like this, I get to wander around watching everyone else, seeing if they need help, occasionally giving my opinion on a certain piece, asking them if they'd be interested in buying. Most of the work is done by Susan, because she doesn't trust me as far as she could throw me. I glance at her. Judging by her thick tree-trunk arms, she could throw me quite far.

I walk around, letting the room around me blur as my thoughts deepened. They were mainly about Lia, and that stupid fight. She'd gotten so worked up over nothing. And I wasn't being serious, I was just a little miffed about my hair. How had that turned into her slamming the door behind her and ignoring my calls?

I sigh, and decide to try and call her during my lunch break. I'd hate for Susan to be proven right.

The students have split up, and they're everywhere. Most of them are just standing around talking, and being very noisy. There are three girls hanging around a painting of a naked woman holding a giant grasshopper, giggling and pointing. I look wearily at them, and one of them, the brunette, waves me over.

"Do you work here,” the blonde asks with a twinkle in her eye.

They must be about sixteen, seventeen max. The brunette and redhead kind of snicker with each other, and I ignore them.

"Yeah. Was there anything you needed,” I try to sound like I'm actually interested, but it isn't easy.

I'm just too tired and worried about Lia.

The redhead puts her hands on her hips and tries to appear serious.

"Yeah, thanks, we were wondering (giggle) what your opinion (giggle) on this painting is?"

I stare blankly at it.

"Huh?"

The brunette waves her hand at it.

"Do you think she's (giggle) realistic?"

I laugh a little, shaking my head.

"Shouldn't you be, oh I don't know, doing what you're supposed to be doing?"

The blonde manages to keep a straight face, but I can tell she's still trying not to laugh.

"We are. What's your thoughts on this, uh, masterpiece?"

I shake my head again, smiling stupidly because it's funny, in a light-hearted kind of way. It's taking my mind off my bad mood.

"Right then. Have fun"

I chuckle and turn, walking away from the girls.

"My friend thinks you're hot,” one of them, I don't know which, calls and they crack up laughing.

I smile and shake my head yet again, dodging two boys having an animated discussion about something on TV last night.

"Aren't you popular?"

I know who it is before I even turn around. And sure enough, Jaebeom's leaning against the wall next to the door to the males' toilet, looking almost bored. I walk closer and my good mood is fading fast.

"What are you doing here?"

He shrugs, as though he doesn't really have an answer.

"I was bored. I like looking at art. That's what this place is for, isn't it?"

I sigh.

"No need to get huffy. I didn't pick you as the artistic type"

"I could say the same about you,” he responds, throwing a glance at the front desk where my bag is, full of random sketches.

I make a face, flushing up a little.

"Is there anything about me you guys don't know?"

For the tiniest fraction of seconds, something twinkles in his dark brown eyes, something that looks very much like amusement.

"No"

I cringe, thinking that isn't such a good thing. I've done some pretty embarrassing things.

"Great. Just...great. Look, I have to get back to work, so if you don't mind..."

I don't care if he does mind.

He scoffs.

"As if you do anything useful anyway"

Oh I am not in the mood for him.

"Ever hear the saying if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all,” I snap. I'm the genius of comebacks, I swear.

"Now would you go crawl off somewhere and leave me alone? I have to work, I'm in a bad mood, Lia's not helping (I don't know why I throw that in) and I don't even want to be here so—“

"Then don't be here,” he cuts in flatly.

Like it's that easy. I snort and take a step back.

"I don't know how it works wherever you come from, but here on earth I can't just waltz off whenever I want”

"Yes you can,” he says simply, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"So let's go"

I frown.

"What? Go where?"

He shrugs again and moves past me, heading for the exit.

"Wherever. I'm bored,” he stops at the door and raises his eyebrows at poor little confused me.

"Are you coming or not?"

Flabbergastedness.

"Jaebeom, I can't just _leave_. Susan will kill me”

She's looking for any excuse to fire me.

"I'll take care of it,” he says in what's supposed to be a reassuring tone. It doesn't really work.

"Trust me,” he adds, and his forehead crinkles when he says it. As though he isn't too sure about it either.

I don't trust him. I barely know him, and from what I do know about him, he isn't a very nice person. But like I've said, I'm tired and any excuse to get out of here is fine by me. So I heave a heavy sigh and follow him outside.

It's nice and calm outside. The sky is light blue and dotted with fluffy white clouds. Y'know, all that perfect day crap. We walk along the street, silent and thoughtful. Well, I'm thoughtful.

"I want to eat,” I announce suddenly, in a nice loud clear voice.

I don't know why I had to announce it like that, but hey, I'm hungry. My poor empty stomach! I didn't eat breakfast this morning. Jaebeom glances at me, like he couldn't give a shit.

"Good for you?"

I grab his arm and yank him to a stop. He pushes my hand off him with a dark frown.

"Whoa, no, you dragged me out here (he didn't really drag me, but that's _so_ beside the point) so now you can feed me. I'm starving, I want food, and I'm blaming you because there's no-one else around to blame"

He glares at me for a few seconds but I happily glare back. Feed me dammit! Finally he exhales loudly, turning on his heel and taking off again.

"Fine"

I do my little Yay-I-Got-My-Own-Way dance and follow him along, the thought of food making my mouth water. Oh how I love to be fed!

* * *

I like cafes.

We're sitting at a nice little square table on the sidewalk, under one of those big white umbrellas. Since it's only a few blocks up from the gallery, I've been here a few times before and I like it. It's not fancy, but it's still a pretty decent place, and the coffee is good. And they have the best Thai food in town!

I study my menu, trying to decide what I shall feast on.

"So where's Youngjae?"

I'm kind of glad he didn't come along. It's not that I don't like him or anything, but I'm not in the right mood to deal with his random bursts of energy.

Jaebeom's got his menu in his hands, but he isn't reading it. He's just folding and unfolding it, probably out of boredom.

"He's taking care of things for a while. I just...I had to take a break"

His expression lets me know that I shouldn't ask why. So I don't. Because he's a bit scary.

"Is he okay with it,” I ask hesitantly.

"I mean can he...what if he screws it up?"

"He won’t,” he says firmly.

"He may be a moron sometimes, but he's good at his job,” he pauses.

"That's the only thing he _is_ good at"

I snicker, even though it isn't very nice. A waiter, tall, lean and young, comes up with his little notebook. He’s grinning broadly and chewing gum rather loudly.

"So, ready to order?"

I smack my lips.

"Hell yes. Can I have one of those delicious omelette things?"

He jots it down.

"Of course you can! Would you like toast with that?"

"Would I? Of course I would!"

"And no omelette would be complete without a nice glass of fresh orange juice,” he says with a wink.

I decide that yes, a glass of fresh orange juice sounds tasty.

"Well then, we better throw that in too. Oh, and can I get a muffin too?"

"It would be wrong not to,” he reassures me.

"Any particular flavor?"

“Strawberry”

Be still my little rabid heart.

"Well of course. That was a stupid question,” and I like this waiter.

His nametag reads ‘BamBam’. He looks at Jaebeom.

"Anything for you, grumpy joe?”

Like I said, I really like this waiter.

"No"

"Okay. I'll be back soon, shouldn't take too long,” BamBam floats off and I lick my lips greedily.

" _Food_ "

Jaebeom shakes his head at me.

"Words can't describe how utterly hopeless you are"

I grin, and I'm glad I came out. My stomach is very glad.

"Yeah, I know"

We go silent again and my mind drifts back to Saturday and the mountain.

“C-can you really read my mind,” I ask nervously.

I don't know why I'm nervous. I suppose it's just the whole idea of someone being able to read your private thoughts.

"Yes,” he says, playing with the tablecloth a bit.

"I can do a lot of things,” he pauses, and looks up at me.

"But I don't, if that's what you're worried about”

I breathe a nice sigh of relief.

"Good. Because my mind is private and all that. So, y'know, stay out”

He rolls his eyes.

"I've already said that I have no desire to see into that twisted mess of yours”

"You did yesterday,” I say defensively.

He shrugs and leans back in his chair and all of a sudden I wonder how old he is. Do angels have the same life-span as ours? Who knew?

"I didn't mean to. I was distracted, and I just lost control of it"

He looked almost annoyed that he'd lost control of something. I could see him as the perfectionist type.

"It won't happen again"

And woo, BamBam is back! With a plate and a glass of orange juice with my name written all over it.

"Here you go,” he says happily, placing them down in front of me.

"Told ya it wouldn't take long"

"Thanks”

I'm practically drooling all over the delicious looking omelette, draped delicately over my toast. BamBam disappears again together with another young looking guy named Yugyeom. They are apparently bestfriends who started the whole cafe thing together after they graduated school. Good thing for them. I grab my knife and fork, attacking the omelette ferociously. I can feel Jaebeom's eyes on me, and I don't have to look up to know he's probably disgusted. Yeah, I'm a messy eater when I'm starving.

"So how old are you,” I ask, shoving a forkful of egg into my mouth. I take a gulp of orange juice and swish it all around my mouth.

"None of your business,” he says coolly, looking at me disgustingly. I swallow and wag my finger at him, stuffing my face.

"Well you look very young"

"And you look like a pig,” he snaps, and for a second I think I've offended him by saying he looks young. Then I realize it's probably just because I'm, like I said, a messy eater.

"Sorry.” I apologize and force myself to eat slower, and at least try to seem normal.

It falls back into that uncomfortable silence I'm beginning to hate. I'm not used to this. I'm not used to someone coming into my life so suddenly, and being around so often. And just randomly appearing, with no thought about how I feel.

Apparently, he isn't really used to it either. He looks just as uncomfortable as I feel and I wonder if he hates this so much, why did he come visit me in the first place? And then agree to bring me here?

"So..."

I sip my orange juice in what I hope is a sophisticated way.

"Why'd you come to the gallery?"

I don't mean to sound so curious, but it is a bit strange. Or maybe I'm just looking into it way too much. I guess I'm just suspicious. After all, I don't trust him. I can't help but think he's up to something. Maybe he's trying to get me alone so he can do the whole memory-wiping-thing. I doubt it, but it still lingers on my mind.

He just stares at me for a while then looks up at the sky.

"I told you. I needed a break"

I wave my fork and a bit of omelette flies off and lands on the table right in front of him. He glares at it, then up at me.

"Sorry,” I say sheepishly.

"Okay, you needed a break. Fair enough. But why come annoy me?"

He shrugs, looking uncomfortable again. He obviously isn't a talker.

"I felt like...there was no one else to see"

I roll my eyes and nibble on the crust of my toast.

"Ever tried making friends? Meet someone else, then you won't have to put up with my messy eating"

“Knowing one person is bad enough. If I had my way, we’d never see you again,” he grunts.

Wow. He makes it sound so...ungrateful. Thanks a lot.

"Well then just wipe my memory or whatever the hell you do and then you won't have to know me at all,” I say huffily, a little insulted.

He sighs and leans forward, resting his head on his hand.

"I can't"

"And why not,” I sneer.

"Youngjae,” he says simply.

I raise my eyebrows.

"What about him?"

"He...he just likes this. He's a bloody social butterfly. It'd upset him,” he looks annoyed again. Maybe because he's showing that he actually does care about someone other than himself.

"Can we go now? I don't even know why I came,” he adds under his breath, but I hear it anyway. I decide to ignore that bit, and instead stand up with a huge yawn.

"Yeah, I better get back. Just let me pay for this, and I'll be back out in a second"

* * *

"I really hate Mondays,” I say more to myself than to Jaebeom as we're walking down the street back to the gallery.

"Everyone does,” he says looking around boredly.

"Do you think Youngjae's doing okay,” I ask.

We haven't been gone long, but I still feel sort of worried that he's going to screw it up and the word will blow up or something. I know. I'm melodramatic. And paranoid. Not a good mix.

"He'll be fine"

All of a sudden, he stops walking and fixes me with an odd look.

"Are you okay with this?"

"Okay with what,” I ask, confused.

He takes a hand out of its pocket and threaded his fingers through his hair.

"This. Youngjae and I..."

"Intruding on my life?" I finish for him with a grin.

"I guess so. I mean, I wouldn't be talking to you if I wasn't. It's a bit strange, okay, really strange, but I'm getting used to it. Slowly"

He looks unsure, and I giggle.

"Aw, don't tell me you actually care about how little old me feels"

He scowls, annoyed again.

"No. It's just that we can get into trouble for it"

I stare blankly.

"You can get into trouble for talking to someone?"

He shakes his head, and we're walking again.

"We can get into trouble if we stress anyone out. We're just supposed to do our job, quietly, without anyone really knowing. So we don't upset anything”

"Oh,” I check to make sure no cars can come smashing into me, and we cross the road.

"That's gotta suck"

"I like it that way"

Somehow, I'm not surprised.

We're at the gallery doors and I dread going back in there. I know Susan's going to kill me. Behead me, feed me to her pet fish, the whole lot. Use my skull for a paperweight.

"Okay," I take a deep breath, "let's do this. If my name comes up on your little list, make sure you do it nicely"

"Stop being so dramatic,” he mutters, pushing past me and through the doors.

I pout and follow sulkily, flinching when Susan, at the front desk, stomps over.

"Jackson,” she snarls, pointing a huge finger at me. She notices Jaebeom.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Uh, Susan, this is...my friend, Jaebeom,” I say lamely, not sure what else to say. It's not like I can tell her the truth. Susan looks at Jaebeom closely.

"Friend,” she snorts.

"How much does he pay you?"

"Thanks" I say sourly.

Susan rounds on me again, apparently intent on burying me by nightfall.

"And where the hell were you?! I didn't give you permission to leave. If you think you've still got a job now, you're—“

There was a small noise, like a click, and she suddenly stopped mid-rant, her face totally blank. I blinked. She frowned and looked around, confused.

"What was I about to do?"

"Um..." I trailed off, just as blankly as her.

"You were about to tell those students off for being too loud"

"Oh. Oh yes, right,” she storms off and I turn to stare at Jaebeom.

"That was awesome. Is there something you can do to make her nicer?"

"You wish"

I sigh.

"I know. It'd make my life a lot easier,” I glance at the clock above the front desk. It's 10:45. Bleh.

"I better get back to doing nothing. But hey, uh, thanks for getting me out of here. It was..." I'm not sure what the word is.

"Good. Say hi to Youngjae for me"

He says nothing, just turns and walks out the door. I watch him go, and he's definitely one of the strangest people I've met.

* * *

The rest of the day isn't exciting enough to talk about. The students go home, Susan barks orders at me, I dream about the many different ways of murdering her, the usual stuff. I drive home and the sky is still light blue.

It's been a tiring day. I haven't even done anything and it's been a tiring day. I think Mondays are just cursed.

Back at the flat, the lights are on and when I slide the key into the lock, I discover it's already unlocked. Which means one thing and one thing only.

Lia's in the kitchen at the sink, washing up my dishes from the previous night. She doesn't turn around when I come in. I place my bag on the table carefully, and edge toward her. All of a sudden she turns and flings her arms around me, squeezing me tightly.

"Hi,” I say into her hair, and my voice is a bit muffled by it.

She pulls away but doesn't let go, just moves back enough to see my face.

"Hey. Sorry about the crazy way I acted yesterday, and ignoring your calls and everything. I was just in a really weird mood. It's been pretty stressful at home"

"It's okay,” I say, and I'm just relieved things are back to normal.

"Your parents back in town?"

"Yeah,” she lays her head against my shoulder.

"Which is great, because I get to see Bailey, but it's just a bit...busy. I got into a fight with mum and then I took it out on you, which of course I shouldn't have"

"Eh," I shrug with a grin, "it's fine. I forgive you and all that."

She smiles and I realize her hands are soaking wet and soapy from washing up.

"How was your day?"

"It was..." I think about it.

"It was good."

And so I start thinking about back at the cafe, and Jaebeom and Youngjae. And I want to tell her but I don't know how.

"Hey Li...do you believe in angels?"

She lets me go and goes back to her washing up.

"What, you mean like guardian angels?"

Well, not exactly. More like angels that give you a one-way ticket to the afterlife.

"Uh, yeah. Any angel I guess"

She shrugs, her blonde hair swishing her shoulders.

"Yeah. Why?"

I open my mouth to tell her, but suddenly, I can't. Not now. I frown, and wonder what Youngjae and Jaebeom are doing right now.

"No reason"

Which is a lie, but it's a hell of a lot more believable than the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! It's been uhh 4/5 days since I've published this, so time for an update! Hmm how have you been? I like this story because it's not as heavy as the other one I'm working on. If you can, drop me some insights, just anything to give me an idea of how you see this (story). That'd be a big help! Thanks a lot!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! Next update will be next year! See you!
> 
> As always, I'd appreciate a line or two, please leave any feedback for motivation! Thank you ☺️

**CHAPTER VI**

My room is so boring.

There's just nothing! Nothing exciting on the walls save for a few oddly shaped stains, nothing hanging from the ceiling, even my curtains suck.

"I really need to decorate this place"

Lia is draped over my chest her head resting somewhere near my shoulder. And yes, we're clothed. Bloody dirty minded people.

"Agreed,” she says half-way through a yawn.

"You should hang some nice wind chimes up or something"

"Eh,’ I wrinkle my nose.

"I don't like chimes. Too...tinkly"

Yeah, I'm scared of tinkles. Leave me alone. No, it's just the constant jingling. It gets annoying. My mother loves chimes, unfortunately. Every time I go to her house I have to take earplugs. Seriously. Lia of course finds this amusing, and laughs against my shoulder which tickles, and makes the skin go kind of itchy.

"You're such a baby sometimes"

"Well what if I'm trying to sleep and all I can hear is bloody tinkling,” I demand hotly, determined not to be bested by the stupid chimes.

She just sits up and shakes out her hair, running her fingers through it.

"I'm pretty sure you'll survive, Jack. Besides, they're pretty. Or at least put some pictures up or something. You should hang some of your drawings or whatever up"

Eck, no. Not because I'm scared or anything, but just because...I don't know. I just don't want to. I'm a complication and a half, I am.

I shake my head and decide to find some other nice pictures or posters or whatever the hell people decorate their bedrooms with. Decoratey stuff. Ugh, I'm too lazy to plan this. Mondays suck. My brain never wants to work on a Monday. Or...any other day really.

Lia pecks my forehead and tells me she's going to check on the lasagna. I have no idea where she's pulled a fricken' lasagna from, but it's not like I'm going to argue. Because I'm _starving_. I haven't eaten since this morning, at the cafe, in one of the weirdest times of my life. With Jaebeom. In one of the weirdest times of my life. With the yummy omelette.

So I'm just laying there on my back, thinking that I should have those omelettes more often, when Lia dashes back in, looking like she's seen a ghost.

"Uh, Jack, there are people in the kitchen,” she says, obviously surprised by it.

Well of course it's bloody surprising. Alarmed, I rise up to my elbows.

"Did they just appear out of thin air?"

She looks at me like I'm a total idiot.

"No. I just went in and they were there"

Of course, I've already figured out who they are. I feel a small surge of anger. I'm getting really annoyed at how they think they can just come over whenever they feel like it. I don't mind them being around, but I do have a life and other people in it. They really have to learn to respect that.

"I must have left the door unlocked,” I explain, even though I know that I did lock it.

There's no need to freak her out yet. I get up, very reluctantly, and follow her, even more reluctantly, into the kitchen where I am not at all surprised to find Youngjae and Jaebeom making themselves at home.

"Hi Jack!" Youngjae waves, balancing on the edge of the table.

I mentally wince, imagining it tipping over again. Heh. That'd actually be quite funny. I grin at the thought of Youngjae sprawled out on the floor, but snap back to my neutral expression in an attempt to appear serious. Or annoyed. Seriously annoyed. Yeah sure, let's go for both.

"Hello. I wasn't expecting you,” I say the last part with lots of heavy hinting, as in, what the hell do you think you're doing here?

"We were in the neighborhood, Youngjae wanted to say hi,” Jaebeom looks almost as confused about this little turn of events as Lia does.

I raise my eyebrows.

"You were in the neighborhood?"

Youngjae shrugs, his legs rocking back and forth.

"Yeah. Old lady a few blocks down. There was a fire”

Somewhere behind me I hear Lia gasp.

"There was a fire? Is she okay?"

"No,” Youngjae says airily.

"She's dead"

Lia gasps again and murmurs about how terrible it is. She's a very...caring person, the type who cries when she hears about a frog run over. She stands next to me, taking my hand in hers and squeezes it, mainly to get my attention.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

I can't see the point, seeing as they already know who she is. And probably know every little thing about her. But she doesn't know that, does she?

"Uh, sure,” I shrug.

"Jaebeom, Youngjae, this is Lia. Lia, this is Jaebeom and Youngjae. We um...yeah. They're my friends"

Oh come on. What else am I meant to say?

Lia holds out her free hand to Jaebeom, because he's closer I guess, with an "it's a pleasure.” Jaebeom only looks at it like it's covered with a freaky alien fungus. I glare at him for being such an arse and he ignores that too.

"Um,” Lia's hand drops back down and she's not sure how to respond.

Personally I'd bitch-slap the guy, but hey that's just me.

"Would...would you like to have dinner with us?"

She's just being polite, but I can tell she doesn't want them to stay. I can see it in her eyes. She's just dying for them to say no. And I know that Jaebeom'll turn the offer down, and he opens his mouth to do so but Youngjae cuts in with his girlish squeal.

"Yes! I like food!"

I groan. Jaebeom groans. Lia nods weakly and backs out of the room, muttering about needing more plates. For your information, extra plates are kept in a little cabinet in the lounge room because I'm hopeless at organizing.

"What on earth are you two doing here,” I hiss at them, leaning in so they can hear me.

"And what have I said about the door?!"

"Sorry,” Youngjae says meekly and he looks it too.

He looks down at his lap, his leg-swinging coming to a stop, his dark hair almost hanging over his eyes. I can't see his face, but he's probably biting his lip or something regretful like that. I imagine he looks like a smacked puppy dog. He kind of reminds me of a puppy sometimes.

I snort, roll my eyes and don't get a chance to tell him to grow up because Lia comes back in bearing extra plates and a reluctantly reluctant smile.

"Got them. We're having lasagna,” she adds hopefully, probably wishing that they'll be allergic to it or something. Ha, no such luck!

"Ooh!" Youngjae's head snaps back up and he's grinning from ear to ear again.

"I love lasagne!"

It's going to be a very strange night.

* * *

This was not how I planned for Lia to meet the angels. Actually I hadn't really planned for that at all. I was going to tell her about them first, before I actually let her meet them. But now my plans-that-weren't-actually-planned are ruined! And I'm sitting here at the table with my plate full of lasagna I don't feel like eating anymore, praying they don't blow their cover. I know Jaebeom won't, he's sensible enough. But as for Youngjae...well, let's just say his mind, he, him, borders on idiocy.

"This is great lasagna!” he crows, tucking into it like he hasn't eaten in a billion years.

We've only been eating for about 10 minutes, and he hasn't shut up for any longer than a few seconds. So far he's discussed the weather, the flat, Lia's hair, white rhinos and a cake he'd eaten a few hours ago, all in great detail with a lot of hand waving and squealing. I think Lia's just stunned. And a little worried that he's going to spontaneously combust from all that hyperactivity or something. It's crossed my mind a few times too.

"Thanks,” she says, genuinely pleased.

She likes being complimented.

"I thought I put too much salt in, but it isn't too noticeable, is it?"

Youngjae shakes his head quickly, along with his fork, sending little bits of mince zooming around the place.

"Nah, it's great!"

Lia smiles and sips her water. I kind of slouch in my chair and pick at my food, still a bit sulky.

"So," Lia begins gingerly.

“Youngjae. That's an...interesting outfit”

Interesting? Ha. She doesn't know the half of it.

Youngjae beams and his plate is almost empty. He grabs a slice of bread and mops up some more mince, tearing into it greedily. Geez. And I thought I was a messy eater.

"Thanks! It's really comfortable. And oh so adorable,” he adds with a wink that makes Lia giggle.

"So are you two together,” she asks curiously, obviously thinking about what a strange, strange couple they'd be.

I almost shudder at the thought and then actually wonder if it could be true. Youngjae does seem to adore him. Like at the hospital, when he hugged him like the bloody world was about to end. It's an interesting theory.

But they don't understand what she means and Youngjae stares down at his empty plate mournfully.

"Yeah, we've been friends for a long time now. Years"

He glances at Jaebeom's hardly-touched food, grins and steals the whole plate, replacing the empty space with his own plate. Jaebeom makes no move to stop him, just watches him shove the food into his wide mouth, repulsed.

"No, I mean, are you his girlfriend,” she says it to Youngjae, who promptly drops his fork.

Jaebeom, in the middle of taking a mouthful of water, chokes on it.

"I'm not a girl,” Youngjae shouts, his face turning bright, bright red.

Jaebeom wipes his mouth, over his little coughing fit.

"Youngjae's a guy”

"Sorry!" Lia's cheeks are just as red as Youngjae's.

She seems rather startled at being shouted at.

"I just, well, you're wearing a dress and I, what else was I meant to, god..." she splutters helplessly, looking to me for support.

I'm trying not to laugh. Because god, that was funny. Youngjae's expression, Jaebeom's expression, Lia's reaction.

"Yeah,” I chuckle despite my efforts to resist the chuckliness.

"It freaked me out at first too"

She's just staring at me. Clearly thinking that I'm completely insane for befriending someone else so completely insane.

"O...kay then,” she says slowly, turning back to the angels.

Although he's not smiling, Jaebeom looks mildly amused. Youngjae's gone back to stuffing his face as if the whole commotion never happened in the first place. That kid amazes me. I'm not even sure if I can call him a kid. He could be older than me. Like I've said, I have no idea how the whole angel life-span thing works. But to me, he has the mental capacity of a kid.

"I'm just gonna...go...sit down for a minute,” she says feebly, pushing away from the table.

She leaves the room unsteadily and I wince, standing up to follow her and make sure she's not going to have a heart attack. You'd think she'd never met a boy wearing a dress before. Which she probably hasn't. Before I go, Youngjae points at my plate.

"Are you gonna eat the rest of that,” he manages, his mouth full and gross.

I hand him the plate and he begins molesting it with his utensils.

“Li?” I sit next to her on the lounge chair.

"Are you all right? You look a bit dazed"

She smiles faintly.

"I'm fine. I just...where on earth did you meet them?"

Good question. You remember that rainy day not so long ago? Well they kind of fell from the sky and I was stupid enough to get involved.

"Just...y'know. Around. I know," I add hurriedly.

“They're not the most normal people around. Youngjae's a bit...well there's the whole girl-clothes thing and he's a bit of a goofball and Jaebeom's...I know he can be a bit of a jerk. I'm not even sure if he's human"

Which he obviously isn't, but I didn't mean it literally.

She makes a noncommittal noise I take as a good sign, so I venture onward.

"But, I mean, for all their oddness, they're good people. At least they're not criminals or anything”

In a wacky obscure way I guess you could say they're murderers, but I decide not to go into that right now.

"Yeah,” she agrees, and her smile is a bit stronger.

"I'm sorry for freaking out. It's just these strange moods I've been having lately. It just freaked me out more than it should have. Did I offend him?"

I glance back at the kitchen, where Youngjae is probably still feeding his face.

"Nah. I thought he was a girl at first too. He gets over it. I'm sorry about them suddenly turning up; I didn't know they were coming”

She shrugs.

"It's all right. I was hoping for a nice quiet night, but it's okay. There's always another time”

I grin, rubbing her shoulder.

"Exactly. You gonna come back in?"

"Yeah, in a moment. I'm just resting at the moment. I think I can feel a headache coming on”

"Okay,” I give her shoulder a nice gentle squeeze and head back to the kitchen.

I freeze in the doorway.

"Oh, great! Where's Jaebeom,” I demand, glaring at his empty seat.

Who knows what he could be sneaking off doing...he could be snooping around my place! Youngjae's finished off my plate, and the rest of Lia's.

"He went outside I think. Is there any more of this,” he asks eagerly, practically jumping out of his seat.

"Uh yeah, in the oven,” I jerk my thumb at it and decide to go Jaebeom hunting.

Just to reassure him that Lia is okay and could he please not kill her if she accidentally insulted him when asking if Youngjae was his girlfriend.

* * *

"Jaebeom?"

He's standing on the footpath, his hands tucked somewhere deep in his pockets, shoulders hunched, looking out at the street with an unreadable expression. He kind of half turns at his name, sees it's only me and goes back to his street-surveying.

"What are you doing out here?"

I rub my arms and shiver a bit as horribly chilly wind hits me. It's not really strong or anything, just enough to blow my hair a bit. I tiptoe over the grass coz my feet are bare and the grass is kind of damp, which means they watered it today.

He shrugs.

"Fresh air”

A car rolls past, gleaming under the pale white streetlights.

"Oh, right. Well Lia's okay now. She just got a bit freaked I guess. She's been a bit weird lately"

I frown and look up at the sky. I can't see any stars or anything, because it's so covered with thick grey clouds. It's kind of pretty, all the different coloured greys all melted together. And fucked if I know why I'm even noticing the damn clouds.

"Uh-huh,” he says nonchalantly because he doesn't care and it's pretty pointless telling him anything.

So I have no idea what possesses me to continue.

"I guess she's just a bit upset lately, because her family and everything. I don't know. She has a few problems with them and things get a bit crazy when they're in town. But she gets to see Bailey, her little sister, who's just adorable; she's only like 10 or something,” I babble, still craning my neck to stare up at the sky.

"Uh-huh,” he says again in the same disinterested tone, watching another car drive along the street.

I sigh and scratch my head distractedly.

"I think it's just a girl thing. Weird emotional mood swings”

"I wouldn't know,” he says and it's like woo, I got a proper response! Go myself!

"I don't like girls"

I snort.

"Jaebeom, I don't think you like anyone"

He glances at me scornfully, and it just hits me like a bloody bag of bricks that I've completely misunderstood what he meant. He just said he doesn't like girls. And girls aren't the only gender walking the planet.

"Oh!"

And I swear, my face is burning bright red.

"You meant you, uh, oh. Oops. Um...so you're...oh"

Man, I feel so stupid. I want to smack my head against a wall or something. And I have no idea how to react to this little revealment thing.

"Do they even allow gay angels?"

God I feel uncomfortable now. Just because I acted like such a clueless idiot. No wonder everyone says I have no brain.

He shrugs coldly, and turns his attention back to the street.

"I doubt it matters as long as I do my job"

And we just stand there and now I don't know what to say. It's funny how the whole mood changed so suddenly. Not that it was a really friendly mood to begin with, but you know what I mean. And it isn't even that important, I mean, who cares which gender he fancies?

"Does...does Youngjae know,” I ask cautiously.

"I'm fairly certain he does”

He takes a hand from his pocket and rakes it through his hair. A car screeches in the not-too-distant distance.

"It's none of his business anyway"

He sounds defensive and a bit agitated, so I decide to drop the subject for now. Another gust of wind blows and I shiver again, running my hands over my poor goosebumpy arms.

"It's getting a bit cold"

He turns around properly, peering at me.

"I didn't want to come. I tried to talk Youngjae out of it, but he's just..." he shakes his head, like he doesn't know how to describe how Youngjae is.

And I realize that's he's apologising for once again intruding. But I don't feel so annoyed anymore anyway. It didn't turn out too bad, and Lia still doesn't know the truth, so I guess it went okay. It could've been a lot worse.

"Don't sweat it,” I shrug.

"Just try to let me know before you guys decide to come over. And for god's sakes, use the bloody door,” I add with a soft scowl.

He walks back up slowly, his hands in his pockets again. He kind of stops when he gets to me, and before I know what's happening, brushes a stray wisp of hair away from my eyes and tucks it behind my ear, letting his thumb brush down my cheekbone a bit, and fuck, what the hell?

"Okay,” he says simply, and continues walking.

Um, yeah, okay. And what the _hell_ was that about?

I stare after him, completely dumbfounded. What the hell did he touch my precious hair for? I didn't need him to do that, the hair was fine how it was, why did he have to mess with it? What on earth is wrong with that guy? And I can't explain why, but now I feel a million times more uncomfortable than before.

"You're very strange,” I call after him in a baffled sort of way.

"Has anyone ever told you that?"

But he just disappears inside, leaving me standing there on the footpath, thoroughly puzzled by his strange and rather unpredictable behavior.

Another horrible lot of wind decides to freak me out. I shrug it off and head inside, subconsciously rubbing my cheekbone where his thumb had strayed. It's kind of itchy. And maybe I'm just overreacting about the whole thing.

* * *

When I get back inside Lia is washing up the dishes.

"Hey. God, that Youngjae can eat,” she makes a face, scrubbing away at a plate.

"I know"

I look around, searching for a sign of the terrible two.

"Where are they?"

"Oh, they left,” she sounds relieved.

"Said something important suddenly came up (which I'm guessing means another name was added to their little list). You only just missed them. I thought you would've bumped into them on the way in or something"

Considering they have a habit of just disappearing into thin air, I'm not exactly surprised I didn't.

"Nice of them to say goodbye"

I don't mean to sound so bitter, but it's kind of rude of them to just leave without a word to me. After all, it's my home and life they keep invading.

They could at least be polite about it.

She pulls the plug out and wipes her sopping hands on the tea-towel.

"Are you okay Jack? You seem kind of distracted all of a sudden,” she frowns, wiping down the table.

I shake my head.

"I'm fine. Just a bit tired I guess"

That doesn't even begin to describe it.

She smiles and wraps her arms around my waist, pressing her forehead against mine. Her hair feels prickly on my skin.

"Aw, my poor baby's all worn out"

I sigh.

"Yeah. It's been a bit of a weird day"

She giggles, letting go of me to finish wiping down the sink.

"Yeah, I'll say. The next time your friends come over could you tell them to let us know first?"

I scratch my neck.

"Yeah, I did. Look I'm really tired. I'm just gonna go to bed"

She looks concerned.

"Are you sure you're not sick?"

"I'm not sick,” I promise her because if I don't she'll worry herself to death.

"Just tired"

"Okay"

She looks unconvinced but because she knows I'll get annoyed, she doesn't question me any further.

"I'm just gonna watch TV for a while because it's still kind of early, and I'll be in later"

I trudge off for my boring old bedroom, muttering an okay. Definitely the strangest day I've had for a while. And dammit, that part of my cheek is still itchy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas everyone! Next update will be next year! See you!
> 
> As always, I'd appreciate a line or two, please leave any feedback for motivation! Thank you ☺️


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back (yay). Happy New Year everyone! Sorry, I was so caught up with this really really good novel I’m reading, I almost forgot it was time to update hehe 😅
> 
> Sooooo, I’m reading Yu Wu by Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat. Right, I know that pseud sounds a little crazy but trust me, this lady knows how to fucking write. Lots of you (from Tumblr) knows that it’s really hard for me to like something (book, novel, etc.). The amount of works I’d want to keep for life wouldn’t probably even reach ten. I’m just that kind of reader, with so many unbelievably bizarre tastes. Most people would love something and I’d hate it and yada yada. That kind of thing. And so, it’s really rare for me to read something till the end without dropping it at some point. I get easily disappointed. So when I came across Meatbun a few years ago, I was in a ‘fuck man, why am I only discovering you now’ phase. For those who have the same taste as me, you’d probably love Meatbun’s works as well. You’d probably LOVE 2HA/Erha as well. Ahh! Erha is so.fucking.beautiful. Hmm the more popular Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (if you’re familiar, this has a really huge fandom) is a masterpiece as well, but my tastes still lies on Erha/2ha. God, okay I’m rambling nonsense again but oh well, if you love yaoi/bxb/slash/gay romance genre like me, you better know good shit.
> 
> Right, so I’m really sorry if the update came out late haha!
> 
> Again, any feedback (if you have any) will be greatly appreciated. 💚

**CHAPTER VII**

Sometimes, just every now and then, I think that Susan isn't human. No, wait, correction time! Sometimes I know she's not human.

"But there's hardly anyone here anyway!" I splutter, gaping up at her.

Her nostrils flare and she so must have been a horse in a previous life.

"That's not the point! Get your feet off!"

And with no warning whatsoever she _rudely_ shoves my feet off the front desk. Which seriously disrupts my balance, and I almost fell off the chair. Jesus bloody Christ _sorry_. You'd think I was committing a crime or something. Fricken' drama queen.

"Don't you have something else to do?"

She dumps her clipboard onto the desk and puts her hands on her waist. I can see the hairs dangling from her armpits and immediately feel queasy.

"Not really. Cruz's stuff isn't coming until tomorrow"

I discover a pen hiding under a pile of paper. How dare it try to hide from me! I click it happily, watching Susan's face slowly turning purple.

"So how's my darling uncle going,” I inquire ‘cuz I haven't asked about him for a while now.

And it's the one thing we have in common, so it's a good topic to build our conversation on.

"Good,” she grunts.

"We're engaged"

Whoa, what?! Since when?!

I drop the pen and stare at her.

"Are you serious?"

She's quite enraged by my lack of information-knowing.

"Yes. You'd know if you actually spoke to your family every now and then"

"I do,” I mutter miserably, dropping my upper half onto the desk in one big heap.

Oh my poor uncle. Poor, poor him. What were you thinking?

She pulls her folder out from under my head.

"I suppose that means you're invited,” she says it like she can't imagine anything worse. Truthfully, nor can I.

"Great,” I sulk, rolling a blunt pencil across the table.

It hits the keyboard and gets stuck there and I'm too damn lazy to pull it free. Susan throws her eyes to the ceiling and stalks off. Oh, woe is me. I swear there is nothing worse than boredom, coupled with hunger. I didn't eat breakfast again. I'm usually too asleep in the mornings to think about eating and it's only half-way through the day that I start to regret it.

I sigh and pick up the phone, planning to call Lia and see if she wants to grab some lunch later or something.

"That better not be a personal call Jackson,” Susan's horrible voice warns.

I moan and put the phone back down. That woman is horrible. She's like an ogre. A horrible ogre. Why couldn't my uncle have better taste in women? I mean, really? What was he on? Somehow, by some strange twist of fate, I have someone as wonderful as Lia and he ends up with the ogre.Someone care to explain that to me?

I perk my little head up and spot her a few feet away, scribbling something down on her little clipboard from hell.

"Can I take a break? It's not like anything's happening here anyway,” I add most convincingly.

She flips her hand at me.

"Any chance to get rid of you. Go. Get out of my sight"

Sometimes I love her hatred for me.

I speed out of there as fast as my little legs can take me. The sky is nothing like it was yesterday. It's very cloudy, strange grey clouds that I'm thinkin' cannot be a good thing. Because only one thing comes from those strange grey clouds. Rain.

I grimace, and hope it doesn't rain and the clouds are just a freakish formation that'll pass and leave me nice and dry. But even if it does rain it probably won't do so until later today. It's a relief to know it's not going to suddenly start pissing down on me.

I'm halfway down the second block before my stupid brain remembers I left my phone back in my bag, back at the gallery. This is what happens when I'm distracted. I forget stuff. And just what am I distracted by?

Well, nothing really. I'm just making up excuses.

I head for the cafe I went to yesterday, visions of fluffy omelettes parading through my starved mind. They were really nice. It was really nice. In an odd, uncomfortable sort of way. Because Jaebeom has a way of making things feel odd and uncomfortable. Maybe it's just an angel thing.

Angel.

It's kind of funny how easily I can say that now. 'Yeah, I know a couple of angels.' 'Oh those angels.' I can say it like it's not the slightest bit weird anymore, like it's totally ordinary to be friends with a pair of crazy angels. The shock of it has just faded away. Besides, it's not like I can go boasting about it to people. No one would ever believe me. Ha. Come to think of it, it'd make the perfect story.

I find a free table outside, which isn't too hard because they're all empty anyway. Everyone's inside, probably scared that it's gonna suddenly pour. Well I am braver than that! Until it actually does start raining. Then I'll bolt, squealing like a little girl.

The door bangs and surprise, surprise, it's my good friend BamBam.

"Hey man, didn't expect to see you back so soon,” he punches my arm in that jokish playful non-hurtful way.

I shrug and I don't even have to look at the menu.

"Couldn't resist my craving for omelette. That was delicious"

He looks at the empty seat across from me.

"Not with your friend today?"

What, just because two people have brunch together that makes them friends? Coz I wouldn't really say Jaebeom's my friend. Youngjae maybe, because Youngjae just somehow made himself my friend in his own little mind. But as for Jaebeom...and I shake my head, wondering why the hell I'm making such a big deal out of it. I'm in such a dramatic mood today.

"Nah. Just me. Now feed me my omelettes"

"Right away sir,” he gives a snappy little salute and goes back inside to fetch my precious food.

I lean back on my chair and bend my neck back to examine the gloomy sky. And I'm so damn bored. My life is so boring. Oh sure, there's the weird little slice of insanity thanks to our favorite cross-dresser and not-so-favorite accomplice (or is it the other way around? I wondered if their positions were equal), but it's still boring.

"Hey strawberry boy, here's your omelette"

The plate makes a funny noise when it hits the table. The omelette looks delicious. Fluffy and I swear, it had 'devour me' written all over it.

"Thanks!"

I begin my mutilation, slobbering like a fool. A starving fool. BamBam shakes his head with a weird throaty laugh and warns me to be careful of the sure-to-come rain. I wave him off, my mouth too full to talk, and he disappears.

I eat, thinking that it isn't as fun when I'm alone. Maybe next time I'll invite BamBam to sit down with me. But after seeing the way I eat he'd probably say no straight away. Ugh. I still can't believe the unexpected and unwanted news about my uncle and Susan. What is wrong with the world? Hmm. I'll have to ask Jaebeom if there are angels in charge of love too. And ask him to kick their asses, or at least knock some sense into them. I don't even want to think about the possibility of children...

By the time I finish my omelette BamBam is back out, hovering by the table.

"Finished yet?"

"Yes, you impatient thing”, I push the plate toward him.

"It was nice, thanks"

"No problem. I can see you becoming a regular customer"

I grin and pat my satisfied belly.

"Me too"

"Well be sure to drop by again. Try something else other than the omelette,” he adds, crossing his eyes.

I count out the money and hand it to him, pushing up from the chair.

"Yeah, sure. I like to be adventurous. See you next time"

* * *

"When I said you could have a break, I meant for ten minutes, not a fricken’ hour,” Susan pounces on me the moment I'm walking through the door.

Not literally of course, because if she did I'd probably be pancaked.

"I haven't been gone an hour,” I argue, hoping that I'm right.

I took no notice of the time. Susan jabs a finger at the clock.

"You've been gone for 52 minutes. In my opinion that still counts as an hour!"

"Well your opinion stinks,” I mutter grumpily under my breath.

Apparently she hears my clever little retort, because she rolls her eyes.

"Since you decided to take your own sweet time getting back here, I'm going to have to cancel your lunch break"

Oh bullshit. She doesn't _have_ to do anything. She _wants_ to. I grit my teeth and manage to bite back a reply that'd probably get me fired.

She obviously wants to say more but there are jobs to be done and other people to annoy. She stalks off, barking at some kid to stop touching something. Maybe it's time to start looking for a new job.

"Jack!"

I turn at my name and something hits me. Or to be more correct, _someone._

"Bailey!" I exclaim, pulling the kid off my legs.

Bailey is Lia's sister, which I believe I've mentioned before. She's about 11 and is just full of energy. She has Lia's jet black hair and these huge brown eyes. She's really cute. Unfortunately we rarely get to see her because Lia's parents live in a different state. Which really sucks, coz I adore Bailey.

"Hi!"

"Hey, you got braces,” I notice, poking at her lip.

She rolls her eyes and strikes an annoyed pose.

"Yeah, stupid orthodontist brainwashed mum and dad"

"They look good. And you'll have nice straight teeth"

I was blessed with my father's nice straight teeth.

"Hey,” Lia smiles and brushes hair out of her eyes.

"Bailey wanted to see you, so we just dropped by to say hello"

I ruffle Bailey's hair affectionately and she bats my hand away.

"When are you gonna cut your hair?"

She makes a face at the braid clipped just over my ear.

"You look like a girl"

Well, uhh…

"Maybe like, never?”

Lia laughs.

"You might as well give up Bailey. I've tried a hundred times to get him to cut it and dye it back to black. Jack do you want to grab some lunch soon or something?"

She looks so hopeful and I feel so guilty.

I grimace.

"I wish I could, but I kind of lost my lunch break,” I say grimly.

She stares at me for a moment and then shakes her head.

"How the hell did you manage that?"

"She hates me. I swear. She wants me dead,” I add in a hiss, throwing a glance in Susan's general direction.

Bailey's cute little face scrunches up into a mass of wrinkles and freckles.

"I don't like her. She smells weird"

I pat Bailey's head.

"I know honey, I know. I'll give you lots of ice cream if you form an elaborate plot to kill her. You can frame the old couple down the street"

"Jack!" Lia hits my chest with the back of her hand.

"Don't tell her that!"

I laugh and Bailey looks at me like I'm an idiot.

"Ice cream's bad for your teeth,” she says primly.

She definitely takes after Lia. What sane 11 year old doesn't love ice cream?

"What is Lia doing to you,” I ask sadly, thinking that Bailey's doomed.

Lia makes a snorting noise.

"Making sure she doesn't end up toothless. Okay, so no lunch. We'd better be off, let you get back to work (like I do much anyway). I'll see you tonight then?"

I shrug. It's not like I'm doing anything else. Unless Jaebeom and Youngjae pay an unwelcome visit. Heh, I make it sound like I never want to see them. Which I do and all, I just wish they'd have the decency to let me know beforehand.

"Yeah, sure"

She leans in and kisses me, much to Bailey's disgust.

"Get a room,” she says foully, folding her arms.

Lia giggles, embarrassed.

"Scared I'll give Jack cooties?"

Bailey smirks.

"I think he's the one with the cooties"

I pull a face.

"Aw, yeah, thanks Bailey. I'm not your friend anymore"

Lia smiles, amused.

"I'll see you later Jack. Come on you,” she takes Bailey's hand and leads her out of the gallery.

I feel a bit better now. More lighter, jovial, that happy stuff. Until I hear the unmistakable sounds of someone retching. The kid who Susan yelled at has just thrown up, right near the toilet.

"Jackson!”

Susan swivels around to glare at me.

"Clean that up!"

You've _got_ to be kidding me. I hate her. I want to stab her. I want to run over her in my car. Repeatedly. I'm gritting my teeth so hard I think my teeth bleed.

* * *

"This is ridiculous,” I storm outside and into the car park, my bag hitting my leg because I'm stomping so stompishly.

"This fucking _sucks_ "

What sucks? How much I stink right now because That Bitch from Hell and her stupid "CLEAN THAT UP!" Well _fuck_ you miss. Next time you can clean it up yourself.

I sigh and lean back against my car. It has been such a crappy day. After Lia and Bailey's visit, it just went downhill. I don't know why I do this job. If I'd known my boss would be such a b-i-t-c-h I would never have taken it. But I needed the money, and still do I guess.

Up in the sky the clouds are still blocking out the sun, making everything seem twice as depressing. It kind of showered around 1:30, but it was over pretty quick.

I unlock the car, throw my bag in and get in myself. I don't feel like going home just yet. Meh. I'll just drive around for a bit. Think about stuff. Not that there's much to think about. My life is too boring to think about. It's like the same day, repeating over and over and over again. Nothing exciting happens. It's not building to anything. There's no climax. It's not a journey. I'm not working toward anything exciting or special. I have a steady job, a steady girlfriend, a steady relationship with my family, a steady life. A boring life.

It's funny how whiny I can get when I've had a bad day. And it hasn't even been that bad, when you think about it. I just woke up like this. I blame the crazy weather.

Traffic is okay for once. It's not as homicidal as usual, kind of odd considering what time it is. Again, I blame the weather. See weather? Even the traffic doesn't like you.

I just kind of drive. Not really paying attention to where I'm going. So I have no, _no_ idea how on earth I thought Mount Regent was a good idea.

I've bitched about it before. It's boring and stupid and too high. But I'm in such a weird mood and maybe the fresh air will do me good. Maybe I'm just feeling the need to get away from it all, whatever "it all" is.

So I turn onto the little winding street that snakes up the mountain, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel and letting my mind drift. Outside the sky is still horribly dark. Oh it's so going to rain. _So_ going to rain. Have I mentioned how much I loathe the rain? Because I do. Loathe it. I'd stab it and behead it if I could. I hope it doesn't rain while I'm up here. I'm not even sure what I'm doing up here. I'm still going to use the 'fresh air' excuse.

"Yay! We're going up the mountain again, awesome!"

I jerk the steering wheel just a little too far, my head spinning to the side.

"What?!"

Youngjae flashes me a grin and returns to his window-staring.

"I like mountains"

I scowl my heart attack fading.

"And I'd like to go a day without hyperventilating because of you guys"

But I don't think seeing them randomly appear isn't so shocking anymore.

He looks back at me, sheepish.

"Sorry. I was bored, so I just wanted to say hi"

"You seem to have a hell of a lot of spare time,” I say suspiciously, glancing up at the sky again. Eerie.

"I'm beginning to wonder if you guys even have a job”

He rolls his eyes and crosses his legs, the stockings making a weird scratchy noise as he does so.

"It's not like someone's dying every five minutes. The city isn't that big"

"How many do you get a day,” I ask and somehow I make it sound so casual, like we're talking about pineapples instead of real people.

He shrugs and taps his chin absently. For once he's not wearing his gloves. His nails are hot pink which doesn't really surprise me. He's wearing a couple of those bangle things Lia loves so much, and they clink against each other with every movement, making a tinkling noise which reminds me of the evil chimes.

"Depends. Sometimes one a day, sometimes a couple. Sometimes none. Like I said, it's not a big city,” he snaps his fingers.

"You should totally come with us one time!"

Go with them? What the hell makes him think I want to see them kill someone? Or whatever it is they do? Apart from my curiosity of course. I glance at him.

"Uh..."

"You should!" he enthuses.

"Then you can see what we really do. It isn't bad or anything. I'll ask Jaebeom,” he frowns.

"He'll probably say no. He's sorta stubborn. He'll probably think you won't be able to handle it"

"What? I could so too handle it,” I snap, insulted.

I'm no coward…most of the time. Youngjae grins at me again, bending down to scratch his ankle.

"I know you could. It's just Jaebeom. He doesn't...well, he just doesn't like humans much. He doesn't have much faith in you"

"I noticed,” I mutter darkly and we're almost at the top.

"How long have you two been working together anyway?"

He scratches his nose, getting more excited by the minute. He keeps fidgeting. He must really like this mountain business.

"Oh, not long. Only a few years. I'm new at all this. I'm pretty young in angel terms"

"Why? How old are you?"

His face scrunches up in thought.

"In human years? Uhh…I guess I'd be about twenty? Somewhere around there”

I snort.

"And in terms of maturity you'd be about five. How old's Jaebeom?"

He counts it out on his fingers to himself, his mouth moving silently.

"Probably about eighty or something like that"

I shake my head in awe.

"And neither of you look a day over twenty-one"

He grins.

"Yeah, it's awesome"

He thinks everything's awesome.

We're at the top and it's pretty dim, because the only light is the one in the first platform thing. The others must be broken. There's no one else here, which I don't find too surprising. Because no one else is this insane. I park the car easily enough and Youngjae's out the door before I've even undo my seatbelt.

It's bloody _freezing_. The weather sure ain't helping. The wind is harsh and cold, and stings my face.

"This is insane,” I cry, smacking my forehead.

"What the bloody hell did I come up here for?!"

"It's awesome!"

"It's freezing, you idiot!”

"And awesome!"

"And freezing!"

I stand on the platform with the light.

"Ugh, my hair!"

Youngjae laughs.

"Don't be such a wuss!"

I glare at him as he stalks past without a care in the world.

"I am not! It's just cold"

"Well what did you expect,” he laughs again, holding down his dress so the wind doesn't blow it up.

I huff.

"Not to freeze to death"

"Aw. If I had a jumper I'd give it to you. But I don’t,” he adds with another impish grin, standing right on the edge of the platform.

"Sucker!"

And he steps off.

"Youngjae!" I lunge forward, my hand reaching out, until I suddenly remember that hey, he isn't human. He can fly. Like, duh. I smack my forehead again and just as I'm about to lean over and peer down the mountainside, see where that idiot got to, he shoots up from somewhere below, and is hovering a few feet away from the platform. Just him, nothing special.

Well. That's a major disappointment.

"I thought you guys'd have wings or something cool like that,” I pout.

I wanted to see some wings damn you.

"Oh, we do,” he says cheerfully.

"It's just not a good idea to use them in public like this. They're pretty big"

What's the point of having them if you don't want to show them off? All right, I admit, I'm just being a sulky bastard because I was really eager to see the pretty wings.

"I promise I'll try to show you them later,” he offers kindly, stepping back onto the platform. I fold my arms, narrowing my eyes.

"You better"

Woo! I am so tough. Until I hear something, the unmistakable sound of water hitting steel. Oh, fuck. It's starting to rain. Slowly, but SURELY. Rain gently splatters the car park, gradually getting faster. Oh sure! It had to happen now! Couldn't have happened when I was indoors!

I HATE THE WEATHER!

I glare out at it. There's no way I'm going out there now. I wonder if I can spend the night in the platform, under the nice dry roof...Youngjae shoves my back and I whirl around to be all glary at him.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"It's raining,” he states placidly.

I gasp dramatically, flinging my hand to my mouth.

"No, really? You've _got_ to be kidding me"

He looks unhappy at my sarcastic tone.

"I was just saying. Maybe we should go"

"Or maybe we should just stay here the night,” I suggest, shuddering at the rain.

Because to get to my car I have to go through the rain. And then there's the whole driving down thing. I really hate the thought of driving down a wet slippery road. Especially one on a fricken' mountain. Youngjae pulls a face.

"Not a good idea. Jaebeom'd probably kill me"

"Well unless you can summon an umbrella from somewhere, I ain't moving,” I sneer stubbornly, wishing I'd never come up this dumb hill in the first place. Really, what was I thinking?

He grins and this is probably really amusing to him.

"Don't be such a baby. Come on"

He grabs my arm and, despite my protests and lame attempts to dig my heels in, yanks me out from under the nice, dry platform. And into the not-so-nice wet rain.

The second the evil water hits me, I let out a squeal and run ahead of Youngjae, quickly unlocking the doors and practically diving into the driver's seat.

I'm wet. Wet! Not exactly soaked, but still wet! My shirt is all damp and uncomfortable and there's water running down my face!

"I hate you,” I say as soon as Youngjae gets in beside me.

He giggles and touches his wet hair. His headband is soppy and kind of floppy.

"That was fun"

"No," I snap starting the car up.

“That was not fun. That was terrible"

I can't believe it started so suddenly. Damn you rain, damn you! Such weird weather lately.

I edge out of the car park as slow as a turtle (a slow turtle), gritting my teeth and peering out the window down at the road.

"Can you go a little faster,” Youngjae asks innocently, trying not to be rude.

I shoot a little frosty glare at him.

"Can you make it stop raining?"

He stares off into space.

"I wish I could,” he says dreamily, his hands smoothing out his little apron.

"That'd be cool. Being able to control the weather"

"Uh-huh"

I'm too much attention to the road to pay much to him. He swivels around in the seat again, tapping my arm.

"Can we go back to our place? You can see where we live!"

Hmmm. That'd be interesting. I've always wondered where a couple of angels spend their free time. Well, not really. But now it sounds good.

"Uh, yeah okay"

It's not like Lia's expecting me home any minute.

"Cool!"

He sits back in the seat and hums to himself, staring off into space again. And leaving me to concentrate, thank god.

* * *

"You have a whole house?"

I think I expected an apartment or something. But a house is better.

We've stopped in front of, well, a house obviously. From the outside it looks nice. It's a pale cream color and looks pretty new. And just plain pretty too.

"Yeah. Come on in,” he says eagerly, throwing the seatbelt off and opening the door.

I wince, thinking about all that rain again. I really don't want to get wet any more. He glances at me pleadingly.

"Please?"

I sigh heavily. If I must I must. I did say I would. It'd be rude to say no now. Plus I am curious about how they live.

I open the door hesitantly, say my prayers and run like the wind. Youngjae's at the door before me, and he giggles as I skid to a stop before him, panting.

"You look like a mess"

"Just open the damn door already"

He tucks his fingers into the front of his dress and pulls out a little gold key.

"Voila!"

"Yeah, yeah, very clever,” I mutter, just wanting to get inside to the nice warmness.

He holds the door open and I duck inside, finding myself standing in a nice pristine white room. It has almost nothing in it, just a few paintings on the wall and a couple of cardboard boxes scattered around the floor.

"We're still unpacking"

Youngjae explains, closing the door behind him. Unpacking what exactly, I want to ask. Definitely not clothes. Youngjae's been in the same outfit every time I've seen him. Or maybe he has more than one dress like that. Who knows? Certainly not I!

"Come on, through here,” he leads me through the wide doorway into a gorgeous room.

It's big, the same white as the previous room, and well, gorgeous. It's obviously the lounge room, judging by the three long white couches around a huge glass coffee table and the huge TV opposite them. And stretched out on the centre chair, lying on his stomach with his face turned into the back of the couch, is Jaebeom. He must be asleep.

"Jaebeom!"

Youngjae all but squeals, throwing himself onto the older angel. I blink a few times, startled by his sudden burst of lets-hug-Jaebeominess.

Jaebeom groans and Youngjae, sitting on his back, has his arms around his neck.

"I'm back,” he says happily, hugging his head.

Apparently he likes stating the obvious as much as I do.

Jaebeom moves suddenly, half-twisting around and shoving Youngjae off. Youngjae lands on the thick white carpet, but seems completely unfazed.

"What did I tell you about doing that,” Jaebeom growls, rubbing his face and looking mightily annoyed at his beauty sleep being all interrupted.

"You said not to,” Youngjae answers brightly.

And all of a sudden I have to pity Jaebeom. How he puts up with Youngjae's randomness all the time, I have no idea. I mean, yeah, he's a nice kid and everything. Just a bit of a handful.

"I brought Jackson hyung,” he points at me and, because I don't know what else to do, I give a nice weak wave.

Jaebeom stares at me for a moment, then sighs and drops his head.

"Great"

"Yep, nice to see you too"

A simple hello would be nice sometimes. If that's not too much to ask.

Youngjae touches Jaebeom's knee to get his attention.

"Sorry for waking you,” he apologizes sincerely, sort of miserable about it, like he's only just realized how annoyed Jaebeom is.

Jaebeom glances down at his smacked-puppy face (coz really, that's what he looks like) and sighs again, ruffling Youngjae's hair in, if I'm not mistaken, an affectionate manner! Well there's a nice surprise. It's sort of sweet that despite his growliness, he does care about the guy in some way.

"Don't worry about it," he stands and stretches his arms up, scratching the back of his head at the same time.

He watches me carefully.

"You're wet"

No, seriously, am I? I never would've guessed.

"It's raining,” I tell him and it reminds me of talking to Lia the night I met them, after the hospital.

"Oh,” he glances at one of the many windows, frowning at the water dribbling down it.

"Great"

Ooh is that sarcasm I hear?

Youngjae gets to his feet, brushing down his dress.

"I'm hungry! And thirsty! Hey Jack do you want a coffee? You like coffee"

Mm, coffee. Nice and warm in my belly.

"Yeah, that'd be nice. Thanks"

"My pleasure!"

He basically skips through another doorway, which I'm assuming leads into the kitchen. There's another doorway to the left of me, and I can see that it leads to a roomy hallway. There's a set of dark wood stairs in the corner, leading to upstairs.

I tear my eyes away from the doorway and back to Jaebeom. He's just watching me, no expression on his face whatsoever.

I shift uncomfortably. I don't like people staring at me. Especially Jaebeom. It just feels weird. Maybe because he's such a weird guy.

"Hi,” I say in a clueless way just for something to say.

Rhyme.

He doesn't say anything, and he doesn't take his eyes off me. The way he's looking at me right now reminds me of the way he was looking at me last night. Which reminds me of him touching my cheek, and how awkward that was. But I really need to get over that, because Christ, it was nothing. He was just in an odd mood. Which (come to think of it) is nothing new. I scratch my neck, which I have a habit of doing when I'm uncomfortable like this.

"This uh...it's a nice house. Really nice. You guys must get paid a fair bit to afford something like this"

Because it really is a beautiful house and wouldn't have come cheap. He raises his eyebrows.

"What makes you think we get paid?"

I shrug helplessly, unable to think of a smart answer.

"I dunno"

"We don’t,” he informs me and dammit, he still doesn't look away from me.

"Oh,” I say blankly.

I can hear Youngjae moving around in the next room, and it sounds like he's whistling. Either that or it's a kettle.

"Well it's a nice house anyway. Although I did expect something more...I dunno. Mysticalish. White silk, crystals, floaty stuff, all that”

He shakes his head and finally, much to my relief, takes his eyes off me.

"You're an idiot"

"Well sorry,” I snap.

“I’ve never been to an angel's place before, so excuse me!"

"You're excused"

And dammit, his eyes are shining with amusement. Sometimes I swear he sets out just to get a rise out of me. Jerk.

"Hi! I'm _back_ ,” Youngjae sings, balancing a tray on his head and a plate on each hand.

He puts the plates down on the coffee table and mm, they're covered with yummy cracker type things topped with other various yummy things, and takes the tray with the coffee off his head.

"It's good to know you're useful for something,” Jaebeom sits back down on the centre couch, sniggering at the dirty look Youngjae throws him.

He puts the tray beside the plates and hands me a mug.

"Thanks,” I sort of stand there for a moment, not sure what to do, then I just sit down on the chair to the left of Jaebeom.

"Next time you can get it yourself,” he tells Jaebeom huffily, plopping down on the opposite couch. Jaebeom reaches over and takes his own coffee, sniffing it carefully.

"At least that way I won't die of food poisoning"

With his serious face you'd never know he was only joking, save for the twinkle in his eyes.

Youngjae pokes his tongue at him and munches on a cracker, rather loudly.

"You can die?” I ask curiously, taking a careful sip of my coffee so I don't burn my precious mouth. Coz that _hurts_.

"Well we're certainly not immortal,” Jaebeom rolls his eyes as if he can't believe how stupid I am.

"Be nice, Jaebeom hyung,” Youngjae grins, already on his fourth cracker.

"It takes a bit to kill us, because we heal so quickly, but yeah, we can die"

"Well _thank_ you for giving me a nice, normal answer,” I send a half-hearted glare Jaebeom's way.

He just ignores it of course.

Youngjae licks his lips and rubs his eye at the same time, the bangles on his wrist clinking.

"You're welcome!"

I chuckle and sit back, getting comfortable. The couch is really soft and I practically sink into it. Which is just fine by me. I wish I had some couches like this back at my place.

"Don't spill any of that,” Jaebeom warns, eyeing my mug.

"I won’t,” I say defensively.

At least...I hope I won't.

We slip into silence. Youngjae munching away at the crackers, lost in his own little world, waving at me every now and then, Jaebeom staring off into space, his brow furrowed, and me just looking around. Rain is still lashing at the windows and maybe it's not so bad as long as I'm not actually in it. It sounds nice, anyway. The steady noise is pretty relaxing.

When I finish my coffee (which was really nice, even better than I could make it. Come to think of it, that wouldn't be hard) I put the empty mug on the coffee table and fold my hands in my lap.

Youngjae yawns and stands up, flicking crumbs off his dress.

"I have to change. I'm still kinda wet, and my stockings are itchy! I'll be back down soon!"

And he ducks up those stairs, his footsteps echoing around the room.

Jaebeom sighs for the third time and takes a glimpse of the clock above the TV. It's only 6:30 but it feels a lot later. Maybe because of the weather. The clouds are making it darker than usual. I know I like to blame the weather for everything.

He stands up himself and starts cleaning up the coffee table, gathering little bits of cracker Youngjae left everywhere with a oh-so-disgusted look. I get up and help, because that's the nice polite houseguesty thing to do, and I am a nice polite person. Praise my nice politeness.

He takes the plates and I follow with the tray and cups.

The kitchen is just as nice as the lounge room. Shining white tiles, dark marble-looking bench tops, shiny round sink, pretty little taps, the whole lot. There's a wooden rectangular table at the end of the room, with six matching wooden chairs.

"Nice,” I comment, placing the tray onto the nearest bench.

He shrugs and opens a cupboard, throwing the leftover crackers into it.

"You throw your food into a cupboard?"

Again, he looks at me like I'm the biggest idiot who's ever walked the planet.

"It's a bin. Is there anything between your ears at all? Because I'm seriously starting to wonder. Oh, wait. There's probably dust or something. A few spider webs maybe"

I hmph and take the two cups (coz Youngjae didn't have one) to the sink, planning to do the nice polite houseguesty thing and rinse them off. I stick one under the tap and turn it on.

OUCH!

I almost scream and jerk my hand back, stumbling a few feet backward. My hand is _burning_! It hurts, god, it hurts!

"You moron,” Jaebeom snarls, turning the tap off.

"That's the one for hot water"

I whimper, clutching my hand to my chest.

"How the hell was I meant to know?! You should have fucking labels! Asshole!"

My hand is so sore. The pain is searing and I almost want to cry. Jaebeom rolls his eyes and holds out his hand.

"Give me a look"

"No,” I snap, backing away.

"You'll just hurt it more!"

Okay, I'm a big baby. So what?! I'm in pain damn you! Give me pity!

"Just let me look at it, idiot,” he grabs my arm and yanks it to him.

"Be careful,” I whimper again, staring down at my poor red flesh mournfully. It really does hurt.

"It's sensi-ma-tive"

He holds it in both his hands, examining it carefully.

"Can you make it better,” I ask gingerly, hoping he says yes.

He glances up at me with a scowl.

"I destroy things Jack. I don't fix things"

Such a nice way of putting it.

"Oh sure," I mumble unhappily.

“You get all these cool powers and you can't even heal a freakin’ burn"

He lets go of my hand I clutch it to my chest again. He opens the giant fridge opposite the sink and fumbles around in it for a few seconds. When he turns back around he's holding an ice tray.

"Ooh, ice! Ice is good for burns"

"No shit,” he says darkly, emptying the ice cubes into a tea-towel.

He wraps it up into a ball and ties it off.

"I don't know what the fuck Youngjae's done with the ice packs, so this'll have to do"

He takes my hand in his again, pressing the icy ball to it gently. It hurts at first, but the stabs of pain soon ebb. He doesn't let go though, but instead continues to roll the ice over the skin lightly.

"Thanks,” I say gratefully, enjoying the numbness the ice is bringing.

He looks up at me, startled. Like he didn't expect me to thank him or anything. Or just because he'd gotten so distracted by the icing that he'd forgotten I have a voice box.

"Be more careful next time,” he says quietly.

And I really don't like his eyes. They're just...soft. And I don't mean physically soft, because obviously I'm not touching them so I wouldn't have a clue how they feel (I imagine they'd be squishy), but the look in them, the way he's looking at me right now. It's soft, and gentle, and there's no spite at all, no amusement, no disgust, not even the slightest trace of the usual hardness, and it's a welcome change and I should be glad for it, but for some stupid reason I'm not because somehow, fucked if I know how, it feels too weird. And yeah, I know I'm not making sense but it's hard to describe it. How...alien and...uncomfortable it feels. And it shouldn't be making me feel that uncomfortable because it's not really unusual, is it? So what if he actually looks human for once? Right? Right. And I'm rambling again. Fuck. I'm so nervous I'm not making any sense, and I don't even know why I'm feeling so damn nervous.

"I will,” I mutter, averting my own eyes.

But they snap back to him again when he leans closer, leans into me, and he's too close, too fucking close. My eyes widen, my body just locks up, my breath gets caught somewhere in my chest and I can't breathe and he's so close, and he's still moving closer and his eyes, his fucking too-soft eyes are closing, his eyelashes are fluttering shut and what the _hell_ does he think he's _doing_? I should move, I should definitely be moving, I have to move back or shove him away or something, I have to _move_ , but I can't and he's not breathing either and I still can't move and his mouth, his fucking _mouth_ , is barely an inch from mine, and I need to breathe, and—

"I like feeling dry!"

Jaebeom reels back out of my personal space, his eyes flying open. I stare at him in shock, and he turns to the door just as Youngjae walks in, stretching his arms high above his head, wearing a pale pink singlet, short, short matching shorts and knee-high stripy socks. He stops in the doorway, looking at both of us in utter confusion. Jaebeom releases my hand so quickly I have to grab the ice to stop it from falling to the floor. My face is hot and I'm so glad I can't see myself right now, because it must be such a bright red.

"What happened,” he gasps, and I realize he's talking about my hand.

I can't look at Jaebeom. I don't want to look at him.

"I-I burnt it,” I manage, and I'm still too shocked and freaked out to speak properly.

"I should go,” I add quickly, moving toward the door without waiting for an answer.

I practically shove the ice at Youngjae on the way, and I have to get out of here.

* * *

In the car, my forehead rests against the steering wheel and finally I can breathe properly. Heavily, but properly.

Jesus bloody Christ.

What the hell happened back there? Oh who the fuck am I kidding, I know what happened. He, Jaebeom, mister I-despise-you-because-you're-the-biggest-idiot-I've-ever-met, was about to kiss me. He almost _kissed_ me.

And I almost _let_ him.

No. I didn't let him. I wasn't going to let him. I just...I just wasn't doing a great job of fighting him off. I was too shocked to even move, give me a bloody break! I couldn't even, fuck, how the hell had this all happened? When the hell did he decide he wanted to kiss me? Did he even want to kiss me?! Of course he bloody wanted to. If he didn't want to, he wouldn't have tried it. But then how would I know, I mean, I know fuck all about the guy. I don't know what the hell runs through his warped mind! Oh this is so screwed up.

Dimly, I can feel my hand aching. I grimace and sit up straight, staring at the big creamy white house I'm still parked in front of. Maybe this is what he wanted. For me to freak out like this. Maybe it was all just some stupid stunt of his, to cause me as much stress as possible. Maybe he just likes fucking with my mind. Maybe I should just stop freaking out, calm down and forget about it.

Forget about him. Forget about the both of them.

I can barely think straight. In my mind, all I can see is his face leaning into mine. I close my eyes, firmly tell my brain to cut it out and start the car. Things are so...fuck this. I'm not going to think about this anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back (yay). Happy New Year everyone! Sorry, I was so caught up with this really really good novel I’m reading, I almost forgot it was time to update hehe 😅
> 
> Sooooo, I’m reading Yu Wu by Meatbun Doesn’t Eat Meat. Right, I know that pseud sounds a little crazy but trust me, this lady knows how to fucking write. Lots of you (from Tumblr) knows that it’s really hard for me to like something (book, novel, etc.). The amount of works I’d want to keep for life wouldn’t probably even reach ten. I’m just that kind of reader, with so many unbelievably bizarre tastes. Most people would love something and I’d hate it and yada yada. That kind of thing. And so, it’s really rare for me to read something till the end without dropping it at some point. I get easily disappointed. So when I came across Meatbun a few years ago, I was in a ‘fuck man, why am I only discovering you now’ phase. For those who have the same taste as me, you’d probably love Meatbun’s works as well. You’d probably LOVE 2HA/Erha as well. Ahh! Erha is so.fucking.beautiful. Hmm the more popular Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (if you’re familiar, this has a really huge fandom) is a masterpiece as well, but my tastes still lies on Erha/2ha. God, okay I’m rambling nonsense again but oh well, if you love yaoi/bxb/slash/gay romance genre like me, you better know good shit.
> 
> Right, so I’m really sorry if the update came out late haha!
> 
> Again, any feedback (if you have any) will be greatly appreciated. 💚


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's the story so far? Any feedback would be appreciated! 💚
> 
> Thank you for waiting!

**CHAPTER VIII**

I have a nice close relationship with my family.

How close do you have to be before you can actually call it close? Is there a rule? God I hope not, because if so my first statement there would've been a lie.

Okay, maybe we're not that close. I barely know most of them but I'm okay with that. We're not a snuggly-wuggly bunch but we're not on Jerry Springer either, so I'm sayin' we're not doing too badly.

I'm an only child so yes I was saturated in attention which was fine by me, because it meant lots of toys and yummy things. I don't remember my father. Apparently he left when mum told him she was pregnant. I don't really care. I'm quite content with pretending I have no father at all. I was just mysteriously conceived under some pretty mysterious circumstances.

My mother and her brother, my insane uncle, are the only ones that live in this city. In this state, in fact. They're not very snuggly-wuggly either, but they do keep in touch. And why am I suddenly giving a tour of my family history?

Because I'm on my way to my mother's. I haven't seen her for a while and I figure we've got some stuff to catch up on. Or at least raid her fridge or something.

Fortunately for me, mum's pretty good as far as mothers go. She's a very sporty athletic person and used to love walking around the house naked. Which scarred me for life but also got me a hell of a lot of friends at school who wanted to come over all the time.

Mum lives in a small quaint (my word for the day) two-bedroom house right behind a day care centre. She loves babies. She's baby mad.

I park out front and lock the car, sighing at the house. I love mum and it's not that I don't want to see her; I'm just not in a great mood today. Wait, what am I saying? I haven't been in a great mood for a while now. Oh well. Maybe mum'll put me in a better mood.

She's waiting at the door, muscular arms folded neatly over her chest. She looks kind of sweaty and she's wearing her running clothes. She must've only just got back. Her black hair is falling around her face in choppy waves.

"Hey baby"

She wipes her forehead with her wrist.

"I only got back a few minutes ago. You're just in time for lunch"

This is the fridge-raiding part.

"Hey"

I stand there awkwardly, wondering if I should risk hugging her when she's all sweaty and sticky like that. This is my third favourite shirt. She solves the problem for me.

"Ugh, don't hug me, I'm all sticky"

She plucks her shirt and smiles.

"Just go inside, I'm gonna change into something less covered with crap"

* * *

"You really need to redecorate,” I observe, flicking the disgusting brown wallpaper.

"Oh shut up,” she snorts from her bedroom.

"Yours is no better”

"Anything could be better than this dump mum,” I grin, crouching down in front of the fridge to choose my prey.

She comes back into the room, wearing a simple dress and socks that really need a decent wash.

I point at some leftover KFC.

"How old is that?"

"I only bought it this morning"

She turns on the kettle and I take the KFC, closing the fridge with my butt.

"Is that the only reason you come over? To insult my home and steal my food?"

"Pretty much"

I sit at the table and tear my new friend best friend, chicken, apart happily. Food always makes me happy.

"How've you been?"

"Can't complain, can't complain,” she mumbles in her search for a clean coffee cup.

She finds one wedged between the frying pan and the wall.

"Yourself?"

I shrug.

"Eh. About that. When were you going to tell me about Ron and Susan?"

She visibly flinches, almost spilling the sugar everywhere.

"Well, I was sort of holding out, in the hopes that it was all a bad dream I'd wake up from"

"No such luck,” I say grimly.

"Have you ever considered sending him to a shrink?"

"I did try,” she admits, stirring in the hot water.

"He said I was just jealous"

"Oh yeah," I agree sarcastically.

"I can see what you'd be jealous of"

She smiles faintly and sits down, sliding my coffee across the table to me.

"I'm trying to be supportive. You should too. I know it's a bit...just try and pretend you're happy for them? Maybe they really are happy together"

"Uhh, mum, in case you've forgotten, I work for the woman. I can promise you, no one could ever be happy with her"

She clicks her tongue in a sympathetic manner.

"I do pity you sometimes. But honestly. Who knows, maybe they are happy and we're wrong to judge. Love's a strange, strange thing. You find it in the most unlikely places sometimes”

I think about that for a moment. It sounds deep and prettyful.

"Or...maybe she's brainwashed him"

She considers it.

"Yeah, your theory's better,” she takes a sip.

"Speaking of all that how's Lia?"

Mum really likes Lia. Everyone really likes Lia. I'm told she's very likeable. Lia and mum have a fair bit in common, with the love of exercising and babies and telling me what to do and all those other crazy things.

"Good"

I lick my fingers like a puppy. Only less cute and puppyish. But other than that, exactly like a puppy!

"Her family's in town again, so there's much craziness again"

"Aw, how's Bailey?"

And mum adores Bailey. Hell, everyone adores Bailey. I'm told she's very adorable.

"Cute. She got braces,” I snicker because I'm cruel.

Oh yeah. So cruel. I radiate cruelness. Rays of...cruelness.

She shakes her head.

"Poor thing. Are you bringing her to the wedding?"

"There's a wedding,” I ask in a moment of stupidity.

Hey, I can't be cruel _and_ intelligent at the same time. I'm only human.

She rolls her eyes.

"Ron and Susan?"

"Yeah but that's not for ages. I mean, they only got engaged a little while ago, right,” I ask because I have no idea when they did the big thing.

She sighs and takes a _big_ sip.

"They want it over and done with as soon as possible. I think they said about a month or something. Maybe only a few weeks”

I shake my head in awe.

"What madness"

Mm, coffee. I sure like coffee. It's the only thing that makes sense in this world.

"So how's everything else? Nothing interesting happened lately? It's been a while,” mum says in this uninterested tone WHICH DOESN'T FOOL ME.

She's obviously _dying_ for gossip, good or bad.

Nope, nothing interesting has happened lately. Unless of course you count those pesky angels with their pesky love of annoying me. And it suddenly occurs to me that I've been dying to tell someone about them. I haven't been able to because really, who would I tell? More importantly, who would believe me? Lia would think I'm under too much stress at work and book me into an asylum. Seriously. She would. And here, sitting across the table from me, is the answer to my problem. Mum. And in a lightning flash of quickness, I realize I have to tell her about them, Youngjae...and Jaebeom.

In case you're wondering, and you probably are, it's been two days since the 'incident' in their kitchen. Two completely normal, boring days. I haven't seen either of them which is good, because I don't really want to. I don't think I could handle seeing Jaebeom. I wouldn't know what to say, or do. Demand to know what the shit he was thinking and kick his stupid pansy ass? Ha. Yeah, right. Like I could kick anyone's ass, let alone his. See? This is why I've refused to think about the horrible near-kiss. Things go crazy, I go crazy and I can't think properly. It just confuses my poor simple brain too much. So yeah, I've refused to think about it.

"Mum..."

I choose my words carefully because I don't like straight jackets much. Never actually been in one, but it doesn't seem very fun.

"What would you say if I told you I met an angel?"

She smiles.

"Honey I already know about Lia"

Whoa, blank. I shake my head.

"What? No! That wasn't what I meant. I mean...an actual angel"

She leans back in her chair and studies me.

"I would say...how interesting"

"I know," I twist my hands.

”It's a weird thing to ask all of a sudden, but I just need you to hear me out and just...pretend to believe me, okay? I can even say this is all hypothetical. Okay? Please?"

"Okay,” she agrees calmly, still watching me.

I take a deep breath and push the coffee cup away from my arm so I don't accidentally knock it over.

"Okay. Great. Um...okay, where to start, where to start...do you even believe in angels?"

"Of course I do,” she rolls her eyes.

"You know I do"

"Yes,” I snap my fingers, because I'm nervous and I don't know how to say this without sounding totally crazy.

"Right. Erm. Okay...see, um, I met these angels"

She still stares at me calmly.

"Alright”

"Remember, pretend to believe me,” I say quickly, twitching.

"Okay so I met these two angels...um, they sort of fell from the sky. Literally,” I add, flashing back to that lovely memory.

"Scared the shit out of me. I thought they fell from a plane or out of a tree or something. So I took them to the hospital, because one of them was pretty injured"

"And when did all this happen,” mum asks before I can go any further.

I shrug.

"Last week. Anyway, on with the story. It was pretty pointless taking them to the hospital because they kinda just magically healed themselves or something. So, um, they disappeared and I went home"

"Disappeared? In a puff of smoke?”

Mum's lips twitch and I scowl at her.

"There was no smoke. They just, zip, disappeared. Can you try to take me seriously here?"

"Sorry,” she forces herself to stop smiling.

"Go on"

I fidget a bit.

"It wasn't until the next day that I saw them again"

This sounds terrible. I suck at this.

"One of them, this um...weird guy, he asked if it was okay if we were like, friends. Which I said yes to coz I'm stupid. And so yeah. Now I'm sorta friends with these two total insane freaks,” I crack a weak, weak smile.

I must sound so insane.

"I see,” mum says slowly.

I sigh, crestfallen.

"Just say you believe me"

"I believe you"

"You're lying aren't you?"

"Yes"

I sigh again (my lungs like to empty themselves alright!) and lean forward to grasp my head in my hands.

"This is so fucked up,” I mumble into my somewhat sweaty palms.

"Why me?"

"Oh honey,” mum touches my arm.

"My poor insane son"

"Leave me alone,” I hiss but I'm not angry.

I'm not surprised either. How could I actually expect her to believe me?

"You have to admit,” she strokes my arm comfortingly.

"You have a pretty wild imagination"

"It's not my imagination,” I say heavily.

"I _wish_ it was my imagination. I know it's crazy okay? I know that. I didn't really believe them at first either. But then I saw all the cool tricks and...you believe in angels. Why is this so hard to believe?"

I feel her shrug more than I see it.

"I don't know. Because it's not something you hear about everyday. People shy away from the unfamiliar remember?"

"Yeah,” I say and I'm all miserable again.

"Look I can introduce you to them if you like. Prove it and all,” I add, liking that idea a bit more.

Once she sees what the crazy two can do (like all that flying and mind-reading nonsense) she'll have no choice but to believe them. Right? Right. Hot damn I'm smart.

She seems intrigued.

"Okay, fair enough. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, okay? How about the engagement party next week?"

"There's an engagement party next week? For who?"

She looks like she's not sure if I'm serious or not.

"Um...your uncle and future aunt?"

"Oh, right"

Remember when I said I was smart? Forget I ever said that.

"Okay. I'll bring them to the party thing. Hopefully they won't screw it up too much. And when I say 'they' I really mean Youngjae because Jaebeom doesn't really..." I stop mid-sentence, realizing that I'm talking to myself.

And I've said Jaebeom's name out loud. Which stirs up That Freaky Memory I don't feel like remembering.

"Are you okay,” mum asks looking all concerned all of a sudden.

"You sort of paled"

I shake my head and Jaebeom disappears from my mind.

"Yeah. Just...this guy. One of the angels. He just gets on my nerves a bit"

She cocks her head to the side and at least she's actually interested.

"How so?"

I'm not so sure I want to talk about this side of it.

"Nothing. Never mind. I'm insane"

"I know,” she smiles thinly.

"But you've got me all intrigued. And lookit, you're blushing"

"What? I am not!"

Horrified, I touch my warmer-than-usual cheeks. Damn you cheeks. Damn you to heck.

"Yes you are,” she snickers.

"Now tell me what's running through your little mind and making you blush so"

Ugh I cannot believe I'm blushing. What the fuck am I blushing for anyway? This is ridiculous. But maybe talking about it would be good. Get it off my chest and all that positive healing stuff. Well...it can't hurt, can it?

"See...one of the angels...he's kind of gay"

And yay me, I've totally slaughtered whatever chance I had of her believing me. She raises her thin eyebrows.

"So...a gay angel? Well that's...why isn't he in hell,” she grins and I know that she's not taking me seriously.

But I ignore that because I have to go on. I twist a lock of hair around my fingers, my hands sweating up again.

"I need a certain degree of seriousness for this. Please"

She must get the desperation ‘coz she just nods, going serious again. I sigh again and shove my fingers into my hair, pulling on it a bit and causing a smidge of pain.

"See, um...the other day we were in their kitchen and I dunno, he was acting weirder than usual"

She's still nodding, fucked if I know why, and I guess she's just trying to show she's being serious.

"What do you mean?"

I hesitate. I grimace.

"He...sorta almost kissed me"

Her face is blank for a few seconds. Something flickers in her eyes and she raises her eyebrows again.

"Really?"

"Yes really,” I snap.

"He did"

"Okay,” she says simply.

"Why?"

"Why,” I repeat dumbly.

She waves her hand a bit.

"Why do you think he almost kissed you?"

I roll my eyes.

"Why wouldn't I think that's what it was? He came in all close, he closed his eyes, I tell you it was classical near-kiss mode. And it was so fucking weird!"

" _You_ are fucking weird,” mum corrects with a snarky smile.

"Are you okay? Are you lonely or something? Is everything okay with Lia?"

"Everything's fine with Lia. What has that got to do with anything?"

I should never have mentioned it in the first place.

She shrugs.

"I thought that maybe you've been having problems. That'd explain why you're...fabricating this story"

"What,” I frown, getting rather agitated.

"Lia and I are fine. And I'm not fabricating anything! It's true"

She exhales and her hands are in her lap again.

"Honey...angels? _Gay_ angels? That are what, attracted to you?"

"I didn't say he was attracted to me!" I snap and I'm getting all fired up over nothing again.

"I don't know what the fuck he was thinking! Believe me, it totally baffles me. And even if I was fabricating something like that why the hell would I make it a guy? You know I'm not gay,” I scowl and stand up, frustrated.

"Look I'll just bring them to the party alright? Then you can see for yourself"

"Jackson, honey, don't go,” she stands too but doesn't do much else to stop me.

"I have to anyway,” I mutter and I don't feel any better.

This was supposed to make me feel _better._ Not worse.

"If I don't see you before the party I'll see you there"

As I'm leaving I feel the urge to bang my head against a wall. How could I think telling her would be okay? And why did I have to bring up Jaebeom? I didn't have to talk about him. I can barely figure it out myself, why'd I have to mention it to her? Now she thinks I'm making it all up because I'm unhappy. Which is bullshit. I'm not unhappy...

...Much.

Outside I stand in the street for a moment, thinking about what I've just done. Aside from the whole making-mum-think-I'm-insane-thing, I have to invite Youngjae and Jaebeom to some stupid party I don't even want to go to. Which means I have to _see_ Youngjae and Jaebeom. Which means I have to see Jaebeom. What am I supposed to say to him?

"Hi Jaebeom, wanna come to a party, don't worry about that time when you tried to kiss me?"

Maybe I read it wrong. Perhaps it wasn't supposed to be a kiss. Maybe he was only leaning in to check something...because, try as I might, I just can't imagine why Jaebeom would want to kiss me. It just doesn't make sense. I barely know him.

Which leads me back to my first theory, the one that actually does make sense. He just did to fuck with my poor mind. He probably gets a kick out of this. He's probably laughing his ass off at me right now, chuckling about how he's plunged me into a world of confusion. Right now I really want to rip his head off.

It's been such a weird day already. The whole confession to mum thing didn't go too well at all.

I think I don't want to think about this anymore.

* * *

"It _is_ disturbing, in a way,” Lia admits, her wonderfully soothing hands massaging my aching feet. I snort and rise up on the pillows.

"In a way? It's _all_ disturbing Li”

She smiles and the early morning sunlight is hitting her just right. It makes her glow all pretty-like.

"How long have they been together for anyway?"

"I don't know. Far too long. Apparently they want it over and done with as soon as possible"

We are of course talking about the infamous engagement FROM HELL.

Lia rolls her eyes and swaps feet, moving her wonderfully soothing hands to my left foot.

"They make it sound like it's a chore. Marriage isn't a chore. When I get married I'd take all the time in the world. Wouldn't you?"

It's an innocent question, but there's a certain shine in her eyes that I'm not too fond of. It's the shine she gets when she starts talking about having kids and matching burial plots. I dunno, I guess I just get a bit nervous when it comes to planning long-term stuff. We've only been together for about six months. We haven't even said the Three Little Words yet. Are you shocked? My mother is. Everyone else is. But I mean that's our private business right? And it's not like I don't care about her or anything. I just...I think...I'm just waiting for the right moment I suppose. It's not something I enjoy thinking about.

"Yeah,” I agree uncomfortably and she smiles again.

I've answered correctly, yay. I hope a moment like that doesn't come up again soon. It's very awkward because I haven't thought about that type of stuff yet and I don't really want to. I like to do things one day at a time. Is that a crime? Hey that rhymed! I got my thinking cap on today.

Speaking of thinking caps I'm going to be late for work if I don't move my ass. Thank god it's Friday.

"As lovely as this is I have to get going,” I say apologetically because I really am enjoying this massage.

I pull my feet away all reluctantly and she looks disappointed but she knows I can't take the day off. I've taken way too many sickies this year already. And the only reason I get away with it is because of my uncle.

Otherwise I would've been fired a _long_ time ago.

"I'm gonna hang around here for a while and clean ups” she tells me and yay, I'm going to come home to a clean place for once!

And no I am not just using her for her cleaning powers of cleanliness.

I lean forward and kiss her, pulling on my shoes.

"You're a dream come true"

"And don't forget it,” she giggles and hands me my other shoe.

"I won’t,” I pinch her cheek and I'm off, all fresh and ready to start the day.

I'm in a good mood for a change and I like it more and more. I haven't spoken to my mum since I told her about the angels. Not that I'm giving her the cold shoulder. We just don't talk every single day. More like once a fortnight or so. I still think I made a huge mistake in telling her but there's nothing I can do about it now. If I told her to forget it she'd think I'm totally mad. Well, y'know, madder. Whatever. Don't mock my sanity.

* * *

Do I really have to tell you about how boring my day was? There was Susan. There was another stupid tour group, but this time it was university students which are a smidge better than the high schoolers. Some girl flirted with me the whole time and Susan kept her beady eyes on us, expecting me to give in and whisk the girl off somewhere. I must say she was rather disappointed when I brushed it all off. It's like she's so eager for me to screw up.

I managed to snare a 10 minute lunch break. And spent the whole time trying to calm down some stupid woman who was going insane because there was no toilet paper in the toilet. She actually threatened to sue us. I think people are using any excuse to sue someone these days. It's kind of depressing.

So now it's time for me to scoot on home and I couldn't be happier. It's when I get outside that I decide that maybe I don't want to go home right now. I just don't feel like it. Actually...I feel like walking. Which is insane because this is me and I NEVER feel like walking, unless it's a major emergency and even then I'll want to take the car. Lia would be so proud. So I make sure my jacket is all nice and zipped up (even though it's not very cold...wait what am I saying? It doesn't _get_ cold here) and check that no one's kidnapped my car, and start walking down that happy street.

The sun is shining, the clouds are huge puffy marshmallows and the grass is a sickly brown. It's a perfect day. A perfect day for...the park!

Hey I haven't been to the park for years. And it's only a block down, bonus! And if there are little kids there I can laugh at them. It's all so exciting!

So I aim for the park, whistling a perky tune. Okay that was a lie. I can't whistle too good. So I'm _humming_ a perky tune. I can't explain why I'm in such a good mood today. Especially since I've been in such a foul mood the past few days. Especially since That Incident.

Yes, I'm using capitals now. It fascinates us all.

That Incident. Bloody mum and my bloody desire to tell her everything. Because telling her forced me to think about it and thinking about isn't very fun. It's downright depressing.

The park is small as far as parks go and has lots of brown grass, swings, a slide, a cement path, a water fountain that doesn't work and a tree with swear words scrawled all over it. Innocent family fun!

There's no one here which I find odd. It's the perfect day for parking! Or maybe that's just me.

The grass is kind of crunchy under my shoes. Mainly because it's pretty much dead. Stupid drought. They should just use the ocean. Who needs ocean anyway? We can live without the ocean. It'd be a lot easier to get around the world if we didn't have to cross the large bodies of water. Alright I admit it. I refuse to admit rain is good for anything. How can it be good when it turns my hair into steel wool huh? Answer that wise guy.

I drag my feet over the grass, liking the way it sticks to my shoes. I'm really liking this fresh air stuff. I head for the swings coz man, I haven't sat on swings for ages. Months, years even. And I like to swing!

I sit down and grip the chains. I move slowly, swinging back and forth just a little bit, too preoccupied to put any real effort into it. Yeah, I'm preoccupied again. It's surprising how someone as 'mentally challenged' as me can spend so much time thinking. Thinking about stuff. The engagement party next week. Why on earth did I invite Youngjae and Jaebeom along? Oh yeah. To convince my mother that I'm not crazy!

I've said it a billion times before and I'll say it again. I shouldn't have told mum. I really shouldn't have. Because now _I have_ to prove that I was telling the truth and that means I _have_ to see them.

I'm staring at the dead brown grass in front of me as I rock back and forth and I'm so busy thinking of the few ways I can get out of my little mess it takes me a moment to realize that I'm staring at shoes. Cute black shoes with little white bows on the buckles. I drag my eyes up and the shoes are connected to a pair of skinny legs wrapped in fishnets. Eventually I reach Youngjae's solemn face.

"Hey,” I say, coming to a stop.

He smiles and looks like himself again. I'm not used to seeing him with a serious face.

"Hi hyung. I just thought I'd see how you're doing. Haven't seen you for a few days"

I watch him move over to the swing beside me and sit down, carefully tucking his dress around his legs.

"Yeah well..." I shrug lamely.

"I've been busy I guess. And it's kinda up to you guys. I mean it's not like I can just call you or whatever. I don't even have your phone number. You're the ones with the zipping power to zip around and stuff"

His smiles widens to a grin.

"Yeah. Remind me to write the number down later"

"Remind me to remind you,” I respond because I know I'll forget.

I swallow.

"What are you guys doing next week?"

He tilts his head comically.

"I dunno. Why?"

I shrug casually. "

Just this party thing. Thought you might want to tag along"

And it's twisted but I want him to say no. So you imagine my disappointment when he grins again.

"Sure!"

"Great,” I say not-too-happily.

"That's...great"

A few seconds of quietness passes, with me pressing my shoes into the grass thoughtlessly. After a while Youngjae makes a weird coughing noise and I glance at him. He looks serious again and somewhat nervous.

"Did you...did you have a fight with Jaebeom?"

What an oddly random question.

I glance at him surprised.

"No. I don't think so. Why?"

He looks down at the ground and his cheerful expression is melting away leaving nothing but a frown.

"I dunno. I just...we haven't seen you since you came over and you were acting weird. How's your hand by the way?"

My hand?

Oh. The one I burnt.

"It's fine. All healed,” I hold it up to prove my point.

He doesn't even look at it, just nods.

"So I just thought that maybe Jaebeom said something bad"

Ha. I wish. It sure would've been a lot easier to decipher if it'd just been that. Something tells me it's not a smart idea to tell Youngjae what really happened.

"He didn't. I'm fine, it's all fine"

He looks up at me and he doesn't seem very convinced.

"Are you sure? Did you argue? Because...he's been acting weird too"

I can't see how Jaebeom could act any weirder than usual. He's weird _all the time._ But I adopt a curious expression and ask what he means. He shrugs, one of his hands leaving the chain to press down on his apron.

"He's just been really quiet since then"

I smile a bit.

"He doesn't seem like the talkative type anyway"

He shakes his head, closing his eyes briefly.

"No I mean...it's like he's sulking. He just mopes. It's really weird and I just thought you guys had a fight or something. If you did I'm really sorry, please don't abandon us!"

His eyes are huge and scared. I blink in total amazement at the sudden hysterics.

"Um...I won't? Youngjae I'm not going to stop being your friend just because I had a fight with Jaebeom. And we didn't even _have_ a fight, so calm down"

No. We didn't have a fight. He just tried to kiss me. That's all.

He releases a huge sigh of relief.

"Thank god for that. Look, hyung, I know Jaebeom hyung can come off as a bit of a...he's a little hostile sometimes, I know, but don't let that get to you."

"I'm not,” I say quickly.

"I'm not letting anything get to me. I don't care. He can be as hostile as he likes"

He frowns.

"You don't need to get so defensive"

"Sorry,” I apologize and I've let my mouth run away from me again.

I sigh.

"Can we just stop talking about him? I don't know why he's sulking and I don't care. Change of subject please"

We're nice and quiet again, just sitting there, watching the sun burn the grass. I'm going to have such sunburn later.

"I told my mother about you,” I say after a while, watching my shoes swing back and forth.

"What'd she say?"

He's all curious now.

I shrug lightly.

"Probably thinks I'm going out of my mind. But she agreed to meet you, y'know, prove it and all. That's what the party's for"

He grins.

"Cool! I can't wait to meet her. I like her"

I roll my eyes at his spooky optimism.

"You've never met her"

"I like the things I know about her,” he says primly and that's when I remember that oh yeah, he supposedly knows everything about everyone.

How annoying that'd be. And that makes me wonder something else.

"You know everything that's ever happened to me and stuff...but do you still know it? I mean are you keeping an eye on me still and all?"

‘Coz if so, that means he should've known about what happened in the kitchen. He should've known that I told mum before I even told him.

He shakes his head and oh the relief!

"No. I could, if I wanted to, but Jaebeom said not to. Now that you're our friend you need some privacy. It'd be wrong,” he grins again and I nod absently.

"Good. That's good. I like privacy"

He laughs but suddenly lets out a frustrated cry, clenching his fist.

"Bloody hell!"

Alarmed, I lean over.

"What? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yeah,” he sighs unhappily, holding up his hands.

The List materialises, in all its ugly glory.

"Just this job. Aw man, it's a kid"

"How can you tell it's a kid,” I ask curiously.

He points to the List and I squint at it but I'm too far away to read it properly.

"By the birth date"

The List disappears and he stands up, brushing his dress off.

"Well I have to go...unless..."

He grins, a huge ear-to-ear grin that displays his sparkling white teeth.

"Come with me!"

I stare at him.

"What?"

"Come with me! You can see what we do!"

His voice is shaking with excitement.

"C'mon, you've got to be a little curious at least!"

"I..."

I think about that. Of course I'm curious. Very much so. But I never thought it'd be possible to actually _see_ it happen.

"Is that even allowed?"

He shrugs nonchalantly.

"Who cares! No one's gonna smite you for it"

Oh that's good because I hate being smited.

"Now come on!"

He grabs my hand and yanks me forward off the swing and for someone so short and skinny and delicate looking, he sure is strong.

"It'll only take a second"

"What'll—“

But I'm cut off when we're plunged into darkness. And I mean darkness! I can't see a single thing and there's wind _everywhere_ , hard horrible wind that stings my skin and drags my braid around to hit me in the face, horrible cold wind and I feel like I'm going to throw up. It's crazy, I hate it!

"What the hell?!"

And then it's all gone and it's _light_ again.

I blink, stunned.

We're not in the park anymore, that's for sure. We're in a white room, small and terribly familiar. The hospital.

"I want to throw up,” I mumble more to myself as Youngjae releases his grip on my hand.

I automatically reach up and smooth my hair down, still feeling a bit dizzy.

I examine the room we're in. Like I said it's small and white, with ugly salmon curtains and matching carpet. And there's people. About six of them, all standing or sitting around the thin hospital bed sticking out from the far wall. There's someone on the bed but before I can take much notice of that, I realize Jaebeom's standing a few feet away with his back to us, hands in his pockets. He turns slowly, talking as he does.

"About time you—“

He sees me and his jaw goes slack. He swallows and I flinch because he does not look happy.

"What the hell is he doing here,” he demands in a low hiss, narrowing his eyes at Youngjae.

"Um, well, I just thought it'd be cool if he came and watched us,” Youngjae explains nervously in this high-pitched voice.

Jaebeom stares or more correctly _glares_ at him.

"What is wrong with you,” he asks angrily.

"This isn't a fucking show-and-tell Youngjae!"

"I know!" Youngjae says quickly and I'm so aware of the people in the room.

But none of them are taking the slightest bit of notice. It's almost like they can't hear them.

"Can they see us,” I ask timidly and I feel really guilty for being here.

I should've realized this was not a good idea and stopped Youngjae.

"No they can’t,” Jaebeom responds shortly, not looking at me.

He's still glaring at Youngjae, who visibly cringes.

"I swear Youngjae—“

"Just let him stay,” Youngjae interrupts pleadingly.

"It's not like he's going to cause any trouble. He's just curious. _Please_ "

Jaebeom grits his teeth, his jaw set.

"It's _not_ a good idea"

"I'll be quiet, I promise,” I say hesitantly.

Youngjae's doing the Puppy Dog Eyes thing again.

"Please Jaebeom hyung? Pretty please,” he begs.

Jaebeom scowls, scoffs and half-turns away, folding his arms.

"Fine. Whatever. But if he freaks out it's his bloody problem"

"I'm not going to freak out,” I say indignantly.

"Whatever,” Jaebeom mutters and I'm determined to ignore his mouth.

He turns away and we're left looking at his back again. Talk about rude.

And is it just me or is he refusing to look at me properly? Can't say I blame him.

"Sorry,” Youngjae whispers sheepishly.

Jaebeom ignores him and I clear my throat, trying to move the subject along. If I spend too long focused on Jaebeom's back I'm going to start remembering things I don't wanna remember.

"So..." I study the room more...careful-like.

There are about six people, not including the one in the bed. One of them is a doctor.

"Are you sure they can't see us?"

Just want to make sure. I'd hate for someone to have a heart attack.

"Positive,” Youngjae assures me.

"It's all magic remember"

I move over a bit, just to see things better. There are two people right beside the bed, a woman sitting in an uncomfortable-looking pink chair and a man standing behind her clasping her hand. They're both crying, big fat tears rolling down their faces.

Youngjae was right, it is a kid. A girl. Lying there on the bed, one of those horrible IV things (hey I've never been good with names okay?) in her arm, something resembling an oxygen mask over her mouth. There are machines, I don't even know what they do, but I do recognize the one with the line of little green spikes, the one that has her heartbeat. It's going slow, little blips that echo around the room. She's very pale and pasty and has a hideous purple bruise covering her neck and creeping up almost half her face. And she can't be older than 10.

"What's wrong with her,” I ask, feeling so sorry for her.

Especially since I know what's going to happen to her.

"We don't know,” Youngjae answers.

"We don't need to know. That part is none of our business"

"She's so young,” I murmur, joining them.

The atmosphere in the room is so sad. Everyone, with the exception of the doctor, is crying. Quiet, controlled little sobs that break my heart. I'm a huge softie sometimes and...it's just very sad. I feel so depressed now.

"Makes no difference,” Jaebeom says and his voice is not as nonchalant as Youngjae's.

In fact it's quite harsh but I don't dare to look his way. I get the feeling he doesn't want to look my way either. I hear his clothes rustle and he stalks past me and I mean full-on marches, like he just can't wait to get this over and done with and get out of here. I glance at Youngjae, who flashes me a little smile, pulling a bit of hair away from his headband.

"It's time"

And despite the depressing mood, I'm feeling a little excited. How could I not? I'm about to witness something no one else has ever witnessed. At least...I think no one else has. Oh well. Either way, I'm about to see something pretty damn special. And I have no idea what's going to happen, I'm starting to buzz with anticipation and Jaebeom is standing right beside the bed, opposite the girl's parents, right by her head.

He throws a quick glance at us, his eyebrows knitted for half a second and turns back to the girl. Raises his left hand. And plunges it into her.

I flinch, watching with something akin to horror and confusion. And maybe a bit of awe. His hand is _inside_ her. Inside her chest, her narrow chest, and I can't stop staring.

"Cool huh,” Youngjae says from somewhere to my right but I take no notice.

I'm too busy watching. The machine, the one that monitors her heart, is changing and changing fast. There are no more spikes, no more little blips, the spikes have melted into one long thick line of green, making an awful noise. Like a low-pitched beep, dragged out to match the long line. I'm sorry if I'm being nonsensical, everything just feels so weird. I can't think much.

The woman in the chair, I'm guessing her mother, rises to her feet and all the rest gather around and I watch as someone actually steps _in_ Jaebeom. Her leg goes right through his without a hiccup. I'm fascinated.

And also very, very aware of what's going on. It's leaning toward hysterical. The mother is leaning toward hysterical.

"Ada, Ada baby mummy's here, don't do this,” she practically throws herself onto the girl, Ada (pretty name), sobbing hysterically.

The man who was standing behind her five seconds ago, the man who I'm going to label the father because I know no better, grabs her shoulders and pulls her back, mumbling something I can't and don't want to hear.

And the doctor is just _standing there_ doing _nothing_. The mother seems to notice that too.

"Why aren't you doing anything?!"

She lunges for him and I back away, just as the father grabs his wife again.

The doctor says nothing, just stands there frozen to the spot.

"Why isn't he doing anything,” I ask, horrified.

There is way too much emotion flying around this room right now. I feel sick.

"He can’t,” Youngjae answers and this isn't affecting him at all.

In fact he looks almost...bored.

"Jaebeom won't let him. We'll clean it all up later, don't worry"

I turn back to the girl and Jaebeom's face is scrunched up in concentration and I thought it would be easier than this. Just touch her or something y'know? Not like this.

"Why is it taking so long?"

And yeah, I definitely feel sick now. I'm amazed Youngjae can hear me over the wailing and crying. Not to mention that horrible machine I just want to _strangle_.

"She's fighting it,” Youngjae sighs as though that's some huge inconvenience for him.

"Which is a total pain. I really wish they wouldn't do that"

I don't know why but I get so angry at him right then.

"Oh yeah, god forbid she should fight for her life,” I snap and maybe it's just because I'm so agitated right now, so on _edge_ and I'm blaming all the emotion I was talking about, the thing that's causing the air to choke me.

Jaebeom, his hand still buried deep inside the poor kid, glances at me with this weird look on his face but I ignore him and turn away, so fucking tempted to cover my ears because I can't bear to listen to the harrowing wails any longer.

"This is insane," I mutter.

“This is fucking insane”

“Hyung,” I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn back again, my face set in a grimace.

"Maybe you shouldn't have come,” Youngjae says quietly and all I can think is 'no shit'.

"Oi,” Jaebeom's hoarse voice cuts through the wacky mood and demands our attention.

"I'm almost finished”

Great, yay, wonderful.

The mother is on the floor now, on her hands and knees, her body almost twitching with each heart-wrenching cry. It's so horrible to see. I can't describe how horrible it really is. It really breaks your heart, it does. I close my eyes; I try to block it all out.

And then suddenly, without the slightest bit of warning, there's light. A sudden (pretty) flare of insanely bright white light just _bursts_ from the girl and it's so bright I have to cover my eyes with my hands because it fucking hurts.

There's the weirdest noise, something like a screech and something like a wail, and then the light just totally disappears all at once.

I let my hands drop and I open my eyes and Jaebeom's not by the bed anymore, now he's beside us. He looks...exhausted.

"How do you do that,” I whisper and I'm not asking _how_ they do it, I just saw how, I'm asking _how_.

He shrugs as normally as possible and I can tell he's trying to appear like he doesn't give a damn. He can't fool me. The weary look in his eyes says otherwise. Can you tell I like to rhyme?

"You get used to it,” he says gruffly.

He inclines his head toward Youngjae.

"I told you he shouldn't have come"

"I'm fine,” I say weakly and I've never been very good at lying.

I feel so sick and I don't know...something else. That stupid, _stupid_ machine is still going and just when I'm about to walk over and kick the hell out of it, the doctor reaches over and switches it off. I'm so grateful for that because I don't think I could've spent another second listening to it.

"Now what,” I ask because I don't know what else to ask.

"Now we finish it off,” Youngjae's the only one who seems totally normal with all this.

He's still got that perky aura and is grinning again.

"See?"

He points to the corner of the room and I frown, directing my attention toward what he's pointing at. More specifically, who he's pointing at.

It's the little girl, Ada, whatever her name may be. And she looks very much alive. She's crouched in the corner, gazing around the room with an absolutely terrified expression. Her eyes are huge and I glance back at the bed. She's still in the bed. What the fuck? Anyone want to explain this to me?

"Is that..." I trail off, confused as all hell.

"Yep,” Youngjae says cheerfully.

"I guess you could say it's her ghost"

"Oh,” I say dimly.

"Oh"

The ghost reaches her hand out toward her mother, a trembling hand that's way too thin. Her mouth is moving but nothing is coming out. Have I mentioned how ill I feel?

Youngjae looks back at Jaebeom.

"I'll take her. You look terrible"

Jaebeom just shrugs slightly, his shoulders rising just a bit.

Youngjae walks over to the ghost and the girl, Ada (got to stop calling her 'the girl') finally realizes we're here. She looks at Youngjae. She glances at us wildly, looking even more terrified than before.

I force a smile and wave. I don't know why. She blinks, stunned, and scrambles backward to get away from Youngjae. Her back hits the wall and she can't go any further. Youngjae crouches down in front of her and I can't see his face because he's got his back to us now. I can tell he's speaking but I can't hear what he's saying.

The other people in the room are changing. Half of them have moved outside, shaken. The father's helping the mother back into the chair. She's crying quietly now, probably too exhausted to keep freaking out like she was.

"Oh," Youngjae's voice brings me back to him and the ghost.

He's standing now, and holding her hand. She doesn't look so scared now. Just a bit dazed.

"And Jaebeom hyung, Jackson hyung wants us to go to a party next week"

"You don't have to,” I say quickly.

"It'll probably be really boring anyway, it's not important or anything, you can just say no"

"Don't be silly,” Youngjae grins.

"We'd love to go. Right Jaebeom?"

I glance sideways at Jaebeom, who just rolls his eyes. Yeah he really looks like he'd love to go too. Not.

"I'll see you back at home,” Youngjae tells Jaebeom, before flashing me his usual grin.

And then he disappears like they always do, but this time he takes Ada with him. I stare at the empty space they just were for a few seconds and then close my eyes for a sec.

"Can we go outside,” I ask because I'm desperate to get out of here.

I never ever want to see another hospital again.

"Gladly,” Jaebeom says grimly.

"Just wait a sec"

And there's that weird 'crack' noise, the same as the one back at the gallery that day we went to the cafe and I know he's done something. Sure enough, the father turns to the doctor.

"I'm so sorry,” The doctor says sadly.

"I tried so hard”

"It's not your fault,” the father says gratefully.

"I know you did all you could to save her"

I practically stumble out of the room.

I lean against the wall, getting my mind back.

"That was...weird. Fucking hell that _was_ terrible”

I rub my sweaty forehead.

"Is it always that horrible?"

In all the commotion I've forgotten that I don't want to talk to him.

"No. Most of the time it's pretty easy. It's just when they fight it"

Apparently he's forgotten he doesn't want to talk to me either.

"Are you alright?"

His voice is kind of...robotic. Like it's taking everything in him to force himself to ask that.

I grimace down at the sweat from my forehead now coating my palm.

"Yeah,” I wipe it on my shirt.

"I just want to go home"

"Okay,” and he holds out his hand.

I stare at it, momentarily baffled. What's going on?

He's running out of patience.

"Just take the fucking hand Jackson”

I glance up at his face suspiciously but obediently put my hand in his. He clasps it tightly and whoa, HORRIBLE DARKNESS AND STUPID FUCKING WIND!

"I hate this!" I scream, my hair hitting my face.

When the HORRIBLE DARKNESS AND STUPID FUCKING WIND stops we're standing outside Hanto Court. I just hope no one saw us.

"I hate that!" I exclaim, all ready for ranting.

"That fucking _sucks!_ Don't you hate that?!"

"You get used to it,” he says simply, for the second time that day.

Seething, I go to check my hair. And realize that he's still holding my hand.

So I just stand there for a few seconds, waiting for him to let go. Either he's forgotten or he's purposely ignoring my impatience.

"Um...you can let go of my hand now,” I say awkwardly, not wanting to make him angry.

But he isn't angry. He's more surprised, like he really did forget he was holding it.

"Sorry,” he releases it and I pat my hair with both hands, trying to smooth down the bits that have come loose. It's no use. I'll have to undo it and redo it. Blah. Just great.

"Uh..." I let my arms hang loosely by my side.

"About that party...you really don't have to come. It's just some stupid engagement thing for my aunt. I just thought I'd ask Youngjae ‘coz I thought he'd like that kind of thing. Social butterfly and all. It's up to you,” I add lamely.

If it was up to me I'd go back in time and sew my mouth shut.

Jaebeom shrugs, looking away.

"I'll think about it"

No, you really don't have to. You can just say no right here, right now.

I'm so exhausted. I know I didn't describe the hospital stuff too well, but it's difficult and horrible and...maybe I'm just a wuss. Maybe I get upset too easily or something. I've been known to be a little dramatic; maybe I'm just being too dramatic again. It totally destroyed my good mood. I was so excited at first, eager to see what they do and all that. I never want to see anyone die again. Ever.

And we're silent again and it's the forced, uncomfortable type of silence I hate so much. I don't want it to be like this. I don't want to have to go through this screwed-up quietness every time I see the guy. I really don't. I like to be talkative, I like to talk to people, I like to listen to people talk. I like things to be normal. Got it? N-o-r-m-a-l. Not like this. But we have a reason to be like this. We have some history you could say, some weird screwed-up history.

History. Ha. It was one bloody incident that only lasted a few seconds. One tiny little thing, and that's what's making this so uncomfortable? One tiny thing that was probably a mistake anyway?

And it's there. It's here. Right now I can tell that it's playing back in his mind as much as it is in mine. The thought, the memory, the awkwardness, it's all right here and we're both kinda just dancing around the subject. And once again I'm making no sense whatsoever but I know what I'm trying to say and that's all that matters.

I don't want it to be at the back of our minds driving us insane. I want it over and done with.

"Jaebeom..." 

I lick my lips slowly, contemplating my next move. I can feel his eyes watching me curiously.

"Um...look...about..."

I clear my throat a bit and tell myself to be a man.

"About what happened in the kitchen...?"

I refuse to look at him. He probably looks startled. Probably didn't expect me to bring it up.

"What about it,” his voice is thick.

His attempt at acting casual is failing pitifully.

"I..."

I manage to work up the courage to look at him. His eyes are narrowed but not in a spiteful angry sorta way. It's more of a suspicious thing or something. He looks...guarded. Very defensive. I look back down at the ground.

"Don't worry about it,” I say carefully.

"I get it. Just don't...don't worry about it"

Yay, go me! I'm _facing_ my problems instead of running from them. I feel a smidge-bit of proudness creeping in somewhere.

"Don't worry about it?" he repeats slowly in this almost confused way.

Like he can't quite grasp what I'm suggesting.

I shrug and my shoulders are all stiff.

"Yeah. Just forget it. I know you didn't...I don't know..."

I'm losing track now. Gotta get my mind back. I close my eyes for a mini-sec and when I open them again I think I've got it under control.

"I'm not sure what actually happened. It's all kind of a blur (boy is that a BIG F-ING LIE or what) but...I dunno what you were doing. Why you were..."

I give a short forced little laugh.

"You can plead temporary insanity or whatever"

"Jack what are you talking about,” he asks trying to make sense of what I'm trying to say.

I think we're both a little lost on this. And I never do a great job of making sense, do I?

I heave a sigh.

"I don't know why you...did that"

I can't even bring myself to say it. I am such a girl.

"But I'm okay. I mean, I can just forget about it. It was obviously some type of weird mistake or something, some screwed up accident, maybe you just weren't thinking clearly, maybe you had other things on your mind or whatever, but I mean, I can forget about it and just go back to normal"

"A mistake,” he echoes in this strange, incredulous tone.

"You think...hang on. You think it was an accident?"

No shit. I'm glad your brain works sometimes.

"Um...well yeah"

I look up at him and he looks like he can't work out what the hell I'm saying anymore. Actually he looks kind of surprised.

"You think it was an accident,” he asks again and I raise my eyebrows.

"I just said that"

"How can...how the hell could that be an accident?"

He doesn't give me time to answer, just snorts and shakes his head. I stare at him, wondering what he's getting so pissy about.

"It wasn't an accident Jack. I meant to kiss you. Youngjae just has..." he shakes his head again.

“Terrible timing"

No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, _no_. This is not what I want to hear!! He's supposed to agree with me, he's supposed to admit it was a stupid accident and we're supposed to forget it ever happened! He's not supposed to do this! This cannot be happening. No, no, _no_.

"What,” I whisper and this time it's me with the crackly voice.

"That isn't funny Jaebeom"

"No shit,” he growls.

"I never said it was funny. I can't believe you…"

He rips his hand through his hair.

"How the fuck could you think I didn't mean to?"

"This is insane,” I take a step backward, bewildered and at a loss.

"This is totally completely fucking _insane_. You weren't meant to say that!"

He's starting to get a little annoyed now, I can tell.

"Oh so sorry. What was I mean to say then?"

"That I'm right! That it wasn't meant to happen and, and you're screwing everything up!"

I'm starting to panic. That happens when I leave my comfort zone. I reach up and pat my hair, trying to calm down, feeling all choked up again.

"You're being ridiculous,” he snaps and did I say a little annoyed?

Sorry. I meant really annoyed. As in he's probably about to rip my head off.

"And you're being unfair!" I say hysterically, taking another step back.

"Unfair?" he repeats angrily.

"How am I being unfair?"

"Because," my voice is shaky.

“You're not supposed to say shit like that. You were supposed to say that it was an accident so we could go back to normal"

He shakes his head, scratching his nose irritably.

"How could you think I didn't mean it?"

"Why would you have meant it,” I counter and I don't feel so well.

Actually I feel like throwing up again. I shouldn't have brought the stupid conversation up. Yay. Another mistake for me.

He stares at me for almost 10 seconds (10 unnerving seconds), then snorts again. 

"I knew you could be stupid but I didn't think you could be _this_ stupid"

"I'm not stupid!" I say and I need to calm down.

I have to breathe. In, out, in, out, in, out. Breathe. Calm down.

Ha, yeah right.

"I just...this wasn't meant to happen like this..." I mutter, scratching my head all agitated-like.

Jaebeom raises his eyebrows like this.

"Yeah, so you've said about a hundred times"

"Why would you..."

I come to the conclusion I'd come to before.

"You're doing this to fuck with my head aren't you,” I demand, furious again.

"What? No!"

He glares at me, gnashing his teeth.

"Stop being such a fucking idiot!"

"Well stop doing this!"

"Doing what?! I'm not doing anything!"

"You're not doing it the right way!"

I don't know what I'm saying anymore. I really don't. I'm just so angry and confused. Nothing makes sense to me at the moment.

"You're not saying the right things!"

"What do you want me to say?!"

"I don't know!" I throw up my arms.

"Apologize!"

Whoa. Don't know where that came from.

He narrows his eyes.

"You want me to...apologize"

I consider it. He _has_ caused me a fair bit of stress lately. And now that I've said it I'd look like a fool to disagree with myself.

"Yes"

"For what?"

"For..." I wave my hand vaguely.

"That...thing"

"You want me to apologize for trying to kiss you,” he says in disbelief.

I blush. Fucked if I know why, but I blush. My face is scorching.

"Yes"

He snorts again and turns away, rubbing his forehead. He takes a few steps, shakes his head and groans.

"Fine"

He turns back around, his face set in a deep scowl.

"Fine"

He repeats and suddenly he's marching toward me. Nervous and not liking the angry glint in his eyes I try to move back but he grabs me by the waist before I can.

His mouth crushes against mine. I freeze, his fingers digging into my hips. His lips press against mine and I can't _move_ , I can't breathe, I can't do _anything_. I stare straight ahead, straight at his stupid face and his stupid closed eyes and I need him to get away but I can't move my arms, I can't move anything, _I can't breathe_. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck—

And all of a sudden his head jerks back and he's staring into my eyes, creepy and furious and still I can't get my lungs to work.

"Sorry,” he whispers, his breath tickling my lips.

He steps back, releasing his grip on my waist and whirls around, marching off toward the end of the street.

I let out the shaky breath I was holding, exhaling so hard I think my lungs are going to burst. And I'm furious again. So fucking furious! Who the hell does he think he is?! What the _fuck_ does he think he's _doing_?

"What the hell was that for,” I yell after him, clenching my fists so hard I can feel my fingernails cutting into my skin but I don't care, I don't care, I just want to punch his stupid arrogant head in.

He half-twists around as he walks.

"For pissing me off,” he says but he's not scowling anymore.

In fact he's smirking, he's bloody _smirking_ and I want to tear his lips off and shove them down his stupid fucking throat.

"Pissing you off?!" I shout and I swear, my blood is boiling and bubbling and I'm so mad.

How dare he!

"What about me?!"

He turns his back me again, waving his hand over his shoulder.

"See you around Seunnah”

I glare after him, my chest heaving, my fists by my side, breathing through my teeth. My lips are burning and I can still feel him, still feel his stupid evil mouth against mine and I wipe it roughly, trying to get that stupid feeling off. I can't.

I feel so dirty and I can't focus.

I turn to the building and stomp in, storming through the halls, still clawing at my lips. I need to get him _off_. I need to stop this stupid feeling; I need to feel normal again.

By the time I throw open my door I'm shaking and breathing so hard it almost hurts, still rubbing my mouth frantically. I fall back against the door with a shuddering sigh.

"Jack?"

Lia touches my shoulder gently.

"Honey, are you okay?"

I glance up at her, perfect Lia with her perfect mouth, wearily. Am I okay? No I am not fucking o-kay, thank you for asking. I close my eyes briefly, open them and she's still there with a worried look on her face.

"Jack,” she asks again and I don't know what I'm doing.

I don't think. I just know I have to deal with this; I have to get away from Jaebeom. As far away from him as possible. I grab her. I take her perfect shoulders in my sweaty hands and pull her to me, kissing her desperately. It's a lot harsher than I intend but at the moment I don't care. I know that sounds horrible but I need this, I need to force the feeling away.

I pull back and rest my forehead against hers, panting. She wraps one arm around my waist and uses the other to touch my face gently.

"Honey?"

She brushes some hair from my eyes.

"Did you have a bad day?"

Only one of the worst days of my life. Between the hospital and Jaebeom's bullshit, this day has been terrible. It started out so well. So normal. So fucking normal. What am I saying? Nothing is ever normal when Jaebeom's concerned. Christ. I need to stop thinking about him.

I kiss her again, forcing her mouth open and she doesn't mind. She knows I'm upset, of course I'm upset. She kisses me back with equal enthusiasm and I feel so guilty because I don't want this. I'm not doing this because I want it. I'm only doing it to take my mind off something else. It feels so wrong but I can't stop.

I turn her around and push her against the door, nipping at her wet lips frantically.

And all I can taste, all I can feel, all I can fucking _taste_ is Jaebeom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's the story so far? Any feedback would be appreciated! 💚
> 
> Thank you for waiting!

**Author's Note:**

> Greetings my JackBeom fam! I hope you will like this one! My first ever ship was JackBeom before I shifted to JinSon. Don't get me wrong, I'm still in love with JackBeom in a way, but my heart currently belongs to JinSon.
> 
> Anyway, I am having a rollercoaster of emotions lately, and I can't update DAF at this state. So what do I do? Upload another old work! LMAO.
> 
> This will be lighter than DAF, so no warnings for now! And yeah, a few lines of feedback wouldn't hurt right? I want to know your thoughts on this one. Please let me know in the comments section!


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